Severstal, RÜTGERS Group Set up Coal Tar Conversion JV
04/19/2012 - OAO Severstal and RÜTGERS Group signed an agreement to establish a joint venture named RÜTGERS SEVERTAR, which will manufacture vacuumized pitch, industrial oils, and naphthalene.
OAO Severstal and RÜTGERS Group signed an agreement to establish a joint venture named RÜTGERS SEVERTAR. RÜTGERS Group will contribute 51% of the joint venture’s charter capital.
The total amount of investment in the JV is US$26.6 million. The venture will manufacture vacuumized pitch, industrial oils, and naphthalene. Those will be produced through deep conversion of coal tar at the existing and newly created facilities of the coal-tar processing unit of the Cherepovets Steel Mill coke and byproduct operations.
The companies expect both domestic and foreign aluminum industries to become the major consumers of vacuumized pitch, and both Russian and foreign chemical companies to purchase oils and naphthalene. According to tentative forecasts, the share of export shipments will amount to about 60% of the joint venture’s total sales.
RÜTGERS SEVERTAR is expected to reach its ultimate operating rate in 2013.
Following the signing of the shareholder agreement, a tender was held to select the chief designer for JV construction activities. Based on the results of the tender, OOO Uhde (Dzerzhinsk), a subsidiary of Germany’s Uhde GmbH, a ThyssenKrupp company, was selected as the chief designer.
Udhe has designed the first stage of the construction project. A temporary charging installation for medium-temperature pitch has been designed and is currently under construction. The pitch storage unit is approaching completion of its design stage.
After closing the deal, Udhe began collecting background data for designing the following facilities of Stage II of the construction project: a coal tar distillation unit, a naphthalene purification section, and a pitch granulation section. Construction of those facilities is planned to commence within the first six months of 2012.
ОАО Severstal is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, with assets in Russia, the U.S., the Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Italy, Liberia, and Brazil. Its crude steel production in 2010 reached 14.7 million tonnes.
RÜTGERS group is Europe’s leading manufacturer of chemical raw materials made from coal tar and has eight international production sites. It produces essential raw materials for the aluminum and steel industries from a byproduct of hard coal (e.g., bituminous coal, anthracite).
