OREANDA-NEWS. August 23, 2011. Interpipe Steel, the first Ukrainian metallurgical steel smelting plant to be built from scratch in the region in over 40 years, is nearing completion. The 1st of August saw Interpipe announce that the plant was 80 per cent complete and is currently scheduled to be finished by the end of 2011.

Cold and hot tests of Interpipe Steel are planned to be held in the fourth quarter of 2011 and exploitation tests are planned for the first quarter of 2012.

To date, the installation of two continuous casting machines, which are key devices of the future plant, have been completed. Furthermore, a whole range of crucial apparatus, includings cable transmission lines, the main steel smelting shopfloor, the scrap yard and the ferroalloys warehouse, have all been successfully constructed and assembled.

Moreover, the installation of gas cleaning vacuum degasser, the installation of the warehouse for billets and blooms and finally the installation of the water treatment plant are almost completed. 

Interpipe has also began some testing, primarily with the substation “Pechnaya”.  Gennadiy Esaulov, Director of Interpipe Steel said: “Today we are approaching the final stages of the construction of a new mill that has no comparison in the Ukraine or Eastern Europe. We are pioneers in the field of innovation, creating an environmentally friendly “green industry” and forming a new culture of production. When we talk about building the future and creating new metallurgy, our intention is to bring real meaning to the discussion through tried and tested procedures  – this is our philosophy, our vision for the steel industry.”

The main construction company responsible for  Interpipe Steel is DANIELI Heavy Machinery Engineering, Italy. Marco Colloredo, the General Director of DANIELI said: “Currently more than 1,500 workers are involved in the construction of Interpipe Steel. 83% of the equipment required has already been delivered and construction work is 90% complete. Technology is constantly improving and our specialists have had a great opportunity to apply the new technology at Interpipe Steel.”

The recruitment and training programmes are being actively implemented at the final stage of the Interpipe Steel construction. According to Olga Nenenko, Director of Human resources at Interpipe Steel, Interpipe Steel have handled some 2,000 applications to date with competition in some of the specialist roles reaching up to 10 applications per job. To date, more than 60% of staff have already been recruited. The firat group of workers have already been trained in Danieli training centers, based in Italy.

Olga Nenenko emphasized: “We are creating a new team, the team of forward-thinking people, who will work in fundamentally different industrial cultural conditions.  Interpipe Steel is the mill of the future, and we are looking for employees which fit within this new culture.”