OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2012. VIZ-Stal, an NLMK Group subsidiary and the largest electrical steel manufacturer in Russia, has completed the construction of a new reversing cold rolling mill with an annual capacity of approximately 75,000 tonnes. The commissioning of the mill is one of the key stages of the programme aimed at mastering production of promising premium electrical steel grades with improved magnetic properties (transformer (grain-oriented) steel with high permeability). The planned production capacity of high-permeability transformer may reach approximately 70,000 tonnes a year.
The main supplier of the reversing mill equipment is Andritz-Sundwig (Germany). The estimated cost of the construction project is approximately RUB 1.4 billion.

The mill equipment is currently being set up, and fine-tuning of process modes for trial lots is under way. The mill will be fully ramped up in the first half of 2013.

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VIZ-Stal (part of the NLMK Group) is a leading world producer of cold-rolled electrical steel and the largest producer of transformer (grain-oriented) steel in Russia. As a result of the Technical Upgrade Programme launched in 2007, the production capacities of cold-rolled electrical steels may grow from 170,000 tonnes to 230,000 tonnes by 2015.

Key consumers of the company’s products are machine-building companies specializing in transformer production. The company supplies to domestic consumers (up to 20% of sales) as well as to the export markets of Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

NLMK Group is one of the largest GO flat producers in the world. This type of product is produced at the Lipetsk site (about 160,000 tonnes), and at VIZ-Stal  (170,000 tonnes). NLMK is continuing to implement the programme aimed at mastering the production of the new premium grades of GO steel.