OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2008. The first consignment of commercial steel products with improved consumer characteristics was produced at Ural Steel (a subsidiary of Metalloinvest Holding Company) at the modernized Rolling Mill 2,800, reported the press-centre of Metalloinvest.

The new product met the strong demand of the manufacturers of tubes, bridges and building constructions.

The production of the modernized Plate Rolling mill № 1 was shipped to Kurganstalmost, Ulan-UdeStalmost, Tyumenstalmost, Chelyabinsk Steel Works, Omsk-based "Mostovik", Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Vyksa Steel Works.

The Rolling mill 2,800 and the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) with the design capacity of 1 million tons of steel per year were put into operation on November 20, 2008 as a result of a new stage of technological modernization of steel making and rolling facilities performed at Ural Steel.

During the opening ceremony Maxim Gubiev, General Director of Management Company "Metalloinvest", has noticed that "the implementation of this project will allow Ural Steel to achieve a new level of production, to strengthen its competitive positioning in production of steel and massive plates and to increase competitiveness of the Plant’s steel products owing to the significant improvement of its consumer characteristics".

Maxim Gubiev has drawn special attention to the fact that the launch of the new production facilities takes places in the context of current financial market turbulence, which seriously affects the enterprises of the metals and mining industry. "Despite the difficult economic situation Metalloinvest continues to put new production facilities into operation, thus making further steps to increase the quality of its steel products delivered to traditional and new customers", he said.

The achievement of full capacity by 2 new EAFs will augment the EAF Shop output up to 2 – 2.2 million tons per year, thus allowing to increase the output of high value added products by a factor of 2.2 – 3. Two automatic stands (roughing stand Duo and finishing stand Quatro) will be put into operation at the Plate rolling mill № 1. These new production units are more powerful than the old equipment. This will allow to exclude thermal treatment for a part of steel products as well as to increase the share of controlled rolling, thus contributing to reduce production costs, which is particularly important taking into account the changes in economic situation.

The launch of Rolling mill 2,800 will allow Ural Steel to significantly increase the range of steel products, ensuring its compliance to the requirements of the manufacturers of tubes, oil and gas pipelines, water crafts and maritime platforms, bridges and other types of building constructions.

Aside from the replacement of stands and reheating furnaces, a number of auxiliary equipment was installed at the Plate rolling mill. Namely, the length of the cooling bed was increased twofold, thus allowing the mill to produce rolled products of more than 36 meters long, which are especially demanded by Ural Steel’s customers.