In the coming months Russian mining and steel producer Evraz Group intends to recommission blast furnace (BF) No. 3 at its subsidiary West-Siberian Steel Works (ZapSib), and expects that in the summer of 2009 this subsidiary will be operating all its blast furnaces.
According to the reports, Evraz has decided to increase its capacities at ZapSib, as the mill's low production cost allows it to be competitive for deliveries to the Chinese market. In Q1 2009, Evraz Group's shipments to China amounted to 25-30 percent of its exports.
The restart of ZapSib's BF No. 3, which was switched to slow speed in November 2008, is to compensate Evraz for the lack of output at BF No. 5 at its Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Plant (NKMK), after operations at this blast furnace were halted in April due to low demand. The transfer of pig iron smelting from NKMK to ZapSib will allow Evraz to reduce production costs, and will be more efficient regardless of the costs of transporting pig iron from ZapSib to NKMK.
ZapSib's BF No. 3 was modernized in November 2005 and has a capacity of 6,500 mt of pig iron per day. With its three BFs, ZapSib is able to produce up to seven million mt of pig iron per year and to fully cover NKMK's demand.