OREANDA-NEWS. April 17, 2012. Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel related mining companies, and RUTGERS Group, Europe’s leading manufacturer of chemical raw materials made from coal tar, set up a joint venture.

An agreement to establish RUTGERS SEVERTAR was countersigned in Moscow on September 23, 2011. RЬTGERS Group will contribute 51% of the joint venture's charter capital.

The total amount of investment in the joint venture is USD 26.6 mln. The venture will manufacture vacuumized pitch, industrial oils, and naphthalene*.

Those will be produced through deep conversion of coal tar at the existing and newly-created facilities of the coal-tar processing unit of the Cherepovets Steel Mill coke and by-product operations. The new venture's technology will comply with European environmental standards.

Both domestic and foreign aluminum industries will become the major consumers of vacuumized pitch. Both Russian and foreign chemical companies will purchase oils and naphthalene. According to tentative forecasts, the share of export shipments will amount to about 60% of the joint venture's total sales.

RUTGERS SEVERTAR is planned to reach its ultimate operating rate in 2013.

Following the signature of the shareholder agreement, a tender was held to select the chief designer for joint venture construction activities. Based on the results of the tender, OOO Uhde (Dzerzhinsk), a subsidiary of Germany's Uhde GmbH, which, in turn is a ThyssenKrupp company, was selected as the chief designer.

As part of the countersigned contract, OOO Udhe has designed the first stage of the construction project. A temporary charging installation for medium temperature pitch - an important element of the processing chain - has been designed and is currently under construction. The pitch storage unit is approaching completion of its design stage.

After closing the deal, Udhe began collecting background data for designing the following facilities of Stage II of the construction project: a coal tar distillation unit, a naphthalene purification section, and a pitch granulation section. Construction of those facilities is planned to commence within the first six months of 2012.

*  Vacuumized (coal tar) pitch is a solid product made by processing coal tar. It is a homogeneous thermoplastic substance of black color and is used for manufacture of pitch coke and pitch binder. Those, in turn, are used in the making of anode paste in manufacture of aluminum, electrodes and electrode rods; structural coal-graphite materials, pressed coal-based fuels, rolled roofing material, pitch-based plastic materials and lacquer to protect pipes, containers, metal structures against corrosion etc.

Industrial oils serve various purposes and are used in the making of technical carbon (carbon black) utilized as an enforcing agent to produce synthetic rubber  and other plastic materials. Almost 70% of all technical carbon produced is used for manufacture of tyres.

Coal tar oil is used as an antiseptic agent for impregnation of wood to protect it against biodegradation and disintegration. It is a good wood preservative utilized in construction, railway repairs, metal mining industry, and communication and power line poles.