Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced that it has cast the first slabs at its newly revamped 1 million mt per year vertical continuous casting machine (CCM-3). Following the revamp, the capacity of the CCM-3 has increased by 300,000 mt per year due to higher casting rates and shorter periods between repairs.
The revamped slab casting equipment, allowing slab thickness of up to 315 mm, will produce a wide range of high-quality slabs from various steel grades for further rolling into flat steel products.
According to NLMK, the project which is the second stage of NLMK's technical upgrade program, cost RUR 3.6 billion ($113.5 million).