Interpipe launches hot testing at Dneprosteel
On January 17, 2012 Interpipe and Italian general contractor DANIELI Company successfully have begun hot testing of the manufacturing equipment at the Dneprosteel Electric Steel Smelting Complex (ESSC). During the first melting process 100 tons of steel billets were produced.
The hot testing will be carried out on the entire production chain of ESSC including arc steel-smelting furnace, ladle furnace unit, steel vacuum degassing unit, and continuous casting machines № 1 and № 2. Over the course of the hot testing, staff will monitor the manufacturing process and conduct steel quality analyses.
Gennadiy Yesaulov, Director of Dneprosteel, commented: “To ensure the smooth progress of the hot testing process we have recruited and trained highly skilled employees, who have done extensive training at similar international metallurgical plants. Having completed the testing, Dneprosteel experts should have mastered the technicalities associated with the equipment and should be ready to take over the complex for commissioning.”
Alexander Kirichko, CEO of Interpipe, said: “We have become witnesses to a very important national event. This was not just the first heat, but the birth of a new generation of metallurgy in Ukraine. The new plant is still making its first steps, but its foundation, made out of state-of-the-art technologies, international practices and new approaches to the culture of production, will enable us to raise the standard of the Ukrainian metallurgical industry to a whole new level. ”
The completion of hot and performance testing at Dneprosteel will last till the end of the first quarter of 2012; after that the plant will be officially commissioned. The projected production volume in 2012 will be approximately 700 thousand tons of steel billets.
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Background:
Interpipe is a vertically integrated steel pipe and railway wheel company. It is among the ten largest producers of pipe products and the third largest producer of railway wheels in the world. The Company’s products are supplied to more than 80 countries all over the world through a chain of trade offices located in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Europe, the USA and the Middle East. In 2010 the Company’s mills produced about 1mln tonnes of pipe and wheel products. Annual revenue from sales in 2010 amounted to $USD 1.3 billion.
Interpipe Steel is a key investment project for Interpipe that will provide steel and pipe production with its own billets. The new plant’s capacity will be 1,320,000 tonnes a year, which will make it the largest mill in Eastern Europe. Total investments for the project are $USD 700 million.
The electric steel smelting complex will replace obsolete open-hearth steel production. This will reduce energy consumption per tonne of steel by 8 times, reduce emissions into the atmosphere by 2.5 times, and reduce the consumption of natural gas by 60 million cubic meters, corresponding to a week’s consumption of natural gas in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
