OREANDA-NEWS. March 9, 2011. In 2011, United Metallurgical Company (OMK) plans to increase its investment in the development of Vyksa Steel Works (VSW) and Casting and Rolling Complex (CRC) by 36% as compared with 2010 up to 18.5 billion rubles. This was reported at a press conference by OMK Vice President and VSW Executive Director Vladimir Kochetkov.

According to him, the greater part of the money will be allocated to complete the construction of the Mill 5000 sheet rolling facility, modernize the VSW small and medium diameter pipe facilities, and create the VSW Research Laboratory Center. Among CRC's top priority projects is to create a scrap shredding production area.

V. Kochetkov noted that OMK's main investment project for 2011 is to launch Mill 5000 to produce into broad sheets made of high-strength steels. The annual design capacity of Mill 5000 will reach 1.2 million tonnes of sheets (rolled products), which will fully cover Vyksa Steel Works' needs for raw materials to manufacture large-diameter pipes and make it possible to supply sheets to metallurgical, machine-building, and other entities. As of late January 2011, 98% of the core process equipment manufactured by Germany-based SMS Siemag and about 75% of the auxiliary and general shop equipment was supplied to the Mill 5000 construction site. At present, the equipment is in the process of installation.

In 2010, OMK invested 13.6 billion rubles in the development of VSW and CRC, including more than 10 billion rubles invested in the construction of Mill 5000 and 1.1 billion rubles in the modernization of the small and medium diameter pipe facilities. In 2011, according to Mr. Kochetkov, VSW plans to increase the production of different types of pipes by about 10% to reach 2.2 million tonnes, including 1.35 million tonnes of large-diameter pipes. "We will continue to supply pipe for the main projects implemented by Gazprom, Transneft, Rosneft, and other companies. We plan to supply about 1 million tonnes of pipes to our largest customers. Specifically, in April we will complete our pipe supply for the construction of the second link of the Nord Stream international gas pipeline," said the VSW Executive Director.

Railroad wheel production will exceed the planned figure by 15% as compared with 2010 and reach about 765 thousand wheels. As part of the cooperation with VSW's main customer, Russian Railways, the company will continue developing new types of wheels under the last year's strategic partnership agreement.

In 2010, VSW increased pipe production by 33% as compared with 2009 and reached 2 million tonnes, including 1.3 million tonnes of large-diameter pipes. Railroad wheel production grew 1.5-fold to reach 665 thousand wheels.