OREANDA-NEWS. The first batch of primary technological equipment manufactured by Danieli, Italy, has been delivered for the construction of the Foundry and Rolling Facility (FRF) carried out by United Metallurgical Company (OMK) in the Vyksa District, Nizhni Novgorod Region. The entire set of equipment will be completed by 3Q2007.

According to the press service of OMK, the equipment (total weight: about 27 thousand tonnes) includes an arc steel-melting furnace, a ladle furnace, a vacuumator, a thinslab machine for continuous casting of skelps, a tunnel furnace with a roller hearth, and a broad-strip mill for continuous hot rolling.

Boiler equipment manufactured by Loos, Germany, and cranes for auxiliary shops and a scrap conditioning shop has already been delivered to the FRF. Close to completion is the construction of the scrap conditioning shop and the installation of a line for the briquetting of rolling and foundry waste materials.

The steel erection of the steelmaking shop and the rolling-mill shop is well under way. The installation of engineering communications is in progress. The installation of primary production facilities – a steel-melting furnace and a rolling mill – will be started in the near future. The cold testing is scheduled for September 2007 and the FRF commissioning for late 2007.

The construction of FRF, the world's first specialized complex for the manufacture of pipe rolled products with special properties was launched June 11, 2005. The general contractor is GAMA Endustri, Turkey. OMK's investments in the project total more than $600 million. The annual capacity of FRF Phase One will be 1.2 million tonnes of rolls. The OMK FRF will produce hot-rolled steel coils (thickness: 1-12.7 mm) and fully cover the needs of Vyksa Steel Works (VSW) and Almetyevsk Pipe Plant (APP) for rolled products for their manufacture of small- and medium-diameter pipes (21-530 mm). The OMK FRF will be the world's first facility to produce rolled products for cold-proof and corrosion-resistant pipes. It is also envisaged to master the manufacture of high quality rolled products for rail transport, the automotive and shipbuilding industries.