OREANDA-NEWS. February 28, 2008. Severstal today announced plans to invest $500m in new facilities at its Cherepovets steel mill. By 2011, Severstal will have installed a new steel making facility, including an arc furnace, a ladle furnace, a continuous-casting machine and a rolling mill producing 1m heavy beams per year. The $500m investment is part of Severstal’s $6bn plan to expand its Russian Steel division by 2011.

The new facilities will manufacture large rolled products for use in the construction industry, including T-beams, broad-flanged T-beams, angle pieces and channel beams.

Anatoliy Kruchinin, General Director at Cherepovets, said: “The facilities will manufacture large rolled products for the construction industry to meet the growing needs of the construction market of Russia’s North-Western Region. This will be Severstal’s latest facility based on the mini-mills concept, which cuts energy costs on re-heating billets prior to rolling operations, as well as reducing CO2 emissions.”

Severstal has already announced plans to build two mini-mills of identical capacity in central Russia by 2010. Last year the SeverCorr mini-mill went into operation in the USA.

This approach is more efficient, and environmentally friendly, than other steel-making techniques. Severstal is developing other advanced environmentally friendly solutions, including the use of a closed water circulation cycle (already in place at Cherepovets) and of efficient gas-cleaning and dust-collection systems.

The facility’s entire technological cycle will be concentrated in one place, meaning it will occupy a comparatively small, existing, area and use short internal transportation routes. Existing rail, energy and other infrastructure will be used as much as possible.