Severstal Restarts Blast Furnace No. 1 at Cherepovets Steel Mill
07/20/2009 - Restarting Blast Furnace No. 1 will bring iron production from Severstal’s Cherepovets Steel Mill back up to around 7.9 million tonnes per year.
Severstal has restarted Blast Furnace No. 1 at its Cherepovets Steel Mill in Russia.
Severstal had idled the 1007-m³ furnace in December 2008 as part of its effort to match production with market demand as economic conditions continued to worsen. During the outage, the blast furnace underwent a series of repairs to its lining and cooling plates, as well as the hot and cold blast lines and its top and bottom charging system.
Prior to its idling, Blast Furnace No. 1 accounted for 13% of the Cherepovets Mill’s total pig iron production. Bringing it back on line will help Severstal to optimize the production process at the Cherepovets facility, which has a total annual capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of pig iron.
Although Cherepovets Steel Mill’s Blast Furnace No. 3 is still undergoing renovation, the restart of Blast Furnace No. 1 will bring the facility back to operating three blast furnaces, with pig iron capacity reaching 7.85 to 7.90 million tonnes per year.
