OREANDA-NEWS. Metinvest Group to expand its boron steel products line. For the first time in Ukraine, the agriculture machinery builders have an alternative to imported steel sheets. This type of rolled products is regularly imported from Turkey, Austria and Finland. Industrial production of boron steel gauged from 2.5 mm was launched in the beginning of this year.

Two Group's enterprises — Ilyich Iron & Steel Works of Mariupol (MMKI) and Zaporizhstal are engaged supplies to Ukrainian customers of 30MnB5 steel. MMKI produces coil, and Zaporizhstal cuts it in sheets with required dimensions. Earlier, MMKI produced steel sheets gauged from 6 mm.

30MnB5 steel is used to build agriculture machinery for wear resistant pads, grader blades, caterpillar tracks, lining and screen plates, grinding equipment, blades, ploughs, disc harrows and more. Thinner gauges of steel sheet will allow increasing the area of applications to shells and sowing machine discs and other components with required wear resistance and weight minimization.

Goods made of boron steel have the following properties wear resistance, strength, viscosity and mechanical resistance. 30MnB5 steel in hot-rolled state can be formed, bent, welded and cut, which allows for the construction of complex structures, components and parts. Following heat treatment sheet hardness reaches 47-48 HRC, which exceeds the propertyes of traditional steel grades.

The first batch with thickness of 3 and 5 mm was supplied to Steel Agro company in Zaporizhya in mid-March for the production of disk furrow openers.

The products are targeted to the domestic market, while in the future — to the markets of Belarus, other CIS countries and Eastern Europe. The capacity of the Ukrainian boron steel market is estimated at 12,000 tonnes per year.