OREANDA-NEWS. Azovstal installed a gas pipe to run blast furnace gas into the steelworks heat station in order to partially replace natural gas consumption. As a result, the steelworks will economize on about 40mn cubic meters of natural gas per year. In the second stage of the project, AZST will launch boiler unit#5, which will allow the eventual reduction of natural gas consumption by 105mn cubic meters per year.

Currently, AZST is one of the industry's most intensive natural gas consumers with gas consumption of about 100-105 cubic meters per tonne of output. With the said pipe launch, "we expect a 6-7% decrease in natural gas consumption and about a 18-20% decrease with the implementation of the second stage of the project. We appreciate the project in view of the expected 30% natural gas price increase in 2008," Millennium Capital experts said.