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Metinvest Decommissions Open Hearth Furnace at Azovstal
05/27/2011 - Metinvest has implemented its decision to completely decommission the Open Hearth Furnace at Azovstal Iron and Steel Works as part of a comprehensive modernization and reconstruction program targeting reduction of man-made environmental burden and harmful emissions.
Metinvest has implemented its decision to completely decommission the Open Hearth Furnace at Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.
The company’s decision to decommission the furnace was made as part of a comprehensive modernization and reconstruction program targeting reduction of man-made environmental burden and harmful emissions. The change, part of an aggressive investment policy supporting a full transition to converter steel production methods, will help the company to penetrate new sales markets with improved quality products.
Metinvest’s aggressive investment policy and continuous improvements program will allow the company to achieve a full transition to converter steelmaking within the next month. The company has already finalized its process for converter-based rail and section steel production, which will allow it to penetrate new sales markets with improved quality products.
“We have managed to re-orient the production rather quickly, and complete transition to converter-based production of rail steel. Not only the large-scale investments have played a major role here, but also professionalism of our employees,” said Enver Tskitishvili, General Director of AZOVSTAL I&SW OJSC. “We anticipate full return on our investments and hitting the break-even point of this production site this year already.”
Decommissioning of the open hearth production process will also allow the company to significantly reduce its environmental burden on the region while maintaining its production volumes. The operational improvements program has resulted in efficiency improvements in the converter shop that will allow Azovstal to produce the same volume of quality steel as before. The company has mastered and certified the production of all steel grades that used to be produced with the open hearth process.
Vacant positions at the Basic Oxygen Furnace Shop as well as in other subdivisions of the plant and at Ilyich I&SW were filled based on the experience and professional skills of the open hearth furnace shop employees.
“Winding up the open hearth production is an important step of Metinvest strategy implementation,” said Aleksander Pogozhev, Director of Steel and Rolled Products Division of Metinvest. “The strategy targets at further strengthening of Metinvest positions in the world markets of metal, attaining competitive edge and high quality of products along with achievement of the world steel producers efficiency levels.”
Metinvest, an international vertically integrated mining and steel company, owns 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States. The company manages each link of the production chain, from iron ore, coal mining and coke production to semi-finished and finished steel production, including the manufacture of plate and coil, pipe rolling, shapes and bars and other value-added products.
Metinvest is the largest iron ore producer in Ukraine, and was the sixth-largest producer globally in 2009. Metinvest is ranked amongst the ten largest steel plate producers in the world, placed 28th largest steel producer in the world according to World Steel Association and the second largest producer of steel in Ukraine, having produced 24.0% of all steel manufactured in the country in 2009. In November 2010 Metinvest acquired Ilyich Steel, one of the largest steelmaking companies in Ukraine.
