OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2011. OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) announces that Iskenderun-based MMK-Atakas hot-rolling unit (compact strip mill linked to the electric arc furnace facility) produced its first 3,000 tons of hot-rolled plate.

The company plans to bring the facility to its full production capacity by the end of this year. In January 2012, it will start producing 200,000 tons of hot-rolled products per month. According to MMK estimates, the plant will have produced over 800,000 tons of HRP by the end of 2011.

Sergey Ushakov, MMK-Atakas General Manager, said: “The plant in Iskenderun is running the most advanced equipment in the industry. The full capacity of the plant is 2.3 mln tons of steel products per year. We are working to bring the plant to its full capacity in accordance with the schedule mutually agreed upon with the Italian Company Danieli - the key equipment supplier for the project.”

MMK also announces that color coating line was put into operation at MMK-Atakas production site in Istanbul and the first coil of cold-rolled galvanized plate was painted. The line’s production capacity is 200,000 tons of finished products per year. MMK plans to bring this facility to its full capacity within the next three months. According to Sergey Ushakov, “the launch of the color coating facility will considerably expand our customer base and increase the share of high value added products in our product line.” Like in Iskenderun, the key equipment supplier to the Istanbul facility is the Italian Company Danieli.

MMK-Atakas currently operates the electric arc furnace facility, the cold-rolling mill, galvanizing and color coating lines and two service centers - in Iskenderun and Istanbul. To supply raw and input materials to the Iskenderun plant and ship its products to customers a sea port capable of catering ships of up to 100,000 dwt was built next to the production site. The electric arc furnace facility in Iskenderun was commissioned in March, 2011. The first hot-rolled coil was produced on May 4, 2011. The total investments in the project are estimated at approximately USD 2.1 bn.

MMK is among the world's largest steel producers and is one of the leaders of Russia's steel industry. The company's operations in Russia include a large steel producing complex encompassing the entire production chain, from preparation of iron ore to downstream processing of rolled steel. MMK turns out a broad range of steel products with a predominant share of higher value added products. MMK realises MMK-Atakas project in Turkey with annual capacity of 2.3 mln tons of flat steel. In 2010 MMK Group produced 11.4 mln tons of crude steel and 10.4 mln tons of commercial steel products.