Ashinskiy plans to stop two open hearth furnaces for repairs in June

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 15:55:00 (GMT+2)

Russian steel producer Ashinskiy Metallurgical Works (Ashinskiy) plans in June this year to stop two of its three open hearth furnaces for a simultaneous overhaul.

According to Ashinskiy's press secretary Lev Seleznev, the overhaul of the two open hearth furnaces is planned to be completed within five to six days. As a result, the plant's steel output in June could decrease by 10-15 percent from 60,000 mt to 50,000-55,000 mt, while the rolled steel product output will not be affected and will remain at the level of 50,000-51,000 mt, due to sufficient reserves of slabs. The costs and the exact schedule of repairs will be determined later.

The repair of Ashinskiy's third open hearth furnace was carried out in March this year. All three open hearth furnaces have a total annual capacity of 750,000-800,000 mt.

The need to repair the open hearth furnaces is due to the postponement of the commissioning of Ashinskiy's new unique-for-Russia 120-ton electric arc furnace (EAF-120) with an annual production capacity of about one million mt. The start up of the EAF was scheduled for April 9, 2010, and following its commissioning Ashinskiy was planning to close all its three existing open hearth furnaces within three months. However, due to unforeseen contingencies, which arose during commissioning works at the substation AMET, which will power the producer's new EAF, the commissioning of the EAF was delayed for an unspecified period of time.

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