OREANDA-NEWS. The Cherepovets Steel Mill, a major integrated steelmaker and part of the Russian Steel division of OAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, announces that it is to upgrade its 4−stand cold reduction mill to improve product quality, reduce costs and increase output.

Sergei Toropov, CEO of the Severstal Russian Steel division, commented: “This project involves a complete revamping of the 4−stand tandem cold reduction mill that produced Cherepovets' first cold rolled mill products 50 years ago. This will increase the mill’s annual production capacity by approximately 200 thousand tonnes and raise the annual output of cold rolled products to circa 3 million tonnes.”

According to Mr. Toropov, the upgraded equipment will produce cold rolled steel sheet with a width of up to 1,850 mm, compared to the current maximum width of 1,420 mm.

The upgrade will improve production performance, while products made in the upgraded mill will meet increasingly specific customer requirements in terms of strip flatness and surface finish, facilitating Severstal’s entry into new cold rolled product markets.

Mr. Toropov added: “We are investing more than 2 bln Rubles in this project which we plan to complete within two years. A tender is currently underway for the procurement of core process equipment."