Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced the commissioning of its new blast furnace No. 7 which has an annual output capacity of 3.4 million mt. The total value of the project exceeded RUB 43 billion ($1.3 billion).
The new blast furnace is the first to have been built in Russia in the past 25 years, and is the largest project implemented within the framework of NLMK's technical upgrade program. Following the commissioning of the BF No. 7 and of a new basic oxygen furnace (BOF), NLMK's annual steel output at its Lipetsk site is expected to increase by 36 percent to 12.4 million mt.