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Metinvest to Revamp Heavy Plate Mill, Expand High-Strength Product Mix

07/18/2011 - Metinvest is proceeding with the active phase of its $63-million project to revamp the Heavy Plate Mill 3600 at its Azovstal Iron & Steel Works, including the installation of a hot plate leveler, automatic gauge control, and an accelerated cooling unit.

Metinvest is proceeding with the active phase of its $63-million project to revamp the Heavy Plate Mill 3600 at its Azovstal Iron & Steel Works. The revamp includes commissioning of equipment for production of X80 and X90 high-strength pipe plate.
 
Metinvest selected SMS-Siemag, Germany, as the general contractor and vendor of the equipment. The project is being realized within the framework of Metinvest’s long-term modernization and reconstruction program.
 
According to the signed $20-million contract, SMS-Siemag is to supply and install the technological equipment complex for the plate mill revamp, including hot plate leveler, automatic gauge control, and automatic metal tracking system. SMS Siemag also will install the previously purchased accelerated cooling unit (ACU) and water treatment system. The first equipment batch will is to be delivered by the end of July 2011.
 
Metinvest will stop operation of the Plate Mill 3600 in September 2011 for an overhaul during which the ACU and hot plate leveler will be assembled and installed. Upon commissioning of the new units, plate production will feature a thermal-mechanical controlled process followed by controlled accelerated cooling of the rolled steel, thus providing the required mechanical properties of plates without the need for additional alloying. According to the company, the ability to reduce alloy content by an expected 20% while still maintaining the required strength characteristics will allow the company to decrease pipe plate production costs by 3%.
 
“Steel rolling is one of the important directions of our production chain development,” emphasized Enver Tskitishvili, Director General of PJSC Azovstal Iron & Steel Works. “Reconstruction of the Heavy Plate Mill 3600 marks a new phase of our plant’s modernization. With the help of advanced technologies and equipment, we will be able to make our products less steel intensive and reduce productions costs.”
 
According to the company, higher strength pipe plate from Azovstal will allow it to reduce the wall thickness of SAW LD high-strength line pipes manufactured at its Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant for high pressure oil and gas pipelines.
 
“The projects like this help us to retain our competitive edge and meet the changing requirements and expectations of our customers. We ought to become even more client-oriented and continue developing further,” noted Aleksander Pogozhev, Director of Metinvest’s Steel and Rolled Products Division.
 
SMS-Siemag will provide project supervision work as well as personnel training. The whole production complex is to be commissioned after the overhaul in October of 2011.
 
Metinvest, an international vertically integrated mining and steel company, owns 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States. The company manages each link of the production chain, from iron ore, coal mining and coke production to semi-finished and finished steel production, including the manufacture of plate and coil, pipe rolling, shapes and bars and other value-added products.
 
Metinvest is the largest iron ore producer in Ukraine, and was the sixth-largest producer globally in 2009. Metinvest is ranked amongst the ten largest steel plate producers in the world, placed 28th largest steel producer in the world according to World Steel Association and the second largest producer of steel in Ukraine, having produced 24.0% of all steel manufactured in the country in 2009. In November 2010 Metinvest acquired Ilyich Steel, one of the largest steelmaking companies in Ukraine.