In a statement, the steelmaker said the project will add 20 years to the furnace’s service life and lift its capacity to nearly 3.4 million metric tons of pig iron, an 8 percent increase.

“This project is part of the program we announced previously aimed at upgrading and enhancing the reliability of our equipment,” said NLMK Group vice president for investment projects Konstantin Lagutin in a statement.

“The upgrade will result in a blast furnace that is greener, more productive and more efficient in terms of its consumption rates.”

The company said it intends to disassemble the Soviet-era furnace all the way to its foundation and rebuild it during a 135-day outage in 2018. Ancillary facilities, including the stoves, the casting yard and trestle de-dusting system, and the furnace’s cooling system, also will be upgraded.

SMS group’s Paul Wurth subsidiary has been awarded the project.

Under the contract, Paul Wurth said it will provide final engineering and supply the furnace shell, the hearth lining, cooling elements, low-energy tuyere stocks and a new bustle pipe. It also will replace the furnace’s Bell Less Top with a new, parallel-hopper charging system.

Additionally, the company will outfit the cooling water pumphouse and provide the instrumentation, general electrical and control equipment.

Paul Wurth already has been awarded other contracts for improvements to the furnace’s ancillary components, including the top gas cleaning system, energy recovery turbine and the pulverized coal injection system.