Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works (Alchevsk), subsidiary of Ukrainian steel producer Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD), has restarted full capacity operations at three of its four blast furnaces (BFs), the Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported citing plant CEO Taras Shevchenko. Operations at two of the four BFs were stopped during the global economic crisis due to the shortage of raw materials, while the other two BFs were operating at low capacity.
"Three BFs are operating at full capacity, and one more will reach its full capacity by March 15," Mr. Shevchenko said.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in January 2010, Alchevsk saw its pig iron production fall by 16.7 percent, its crude steel production decline by 13 percent, its finished steel production drop by 14.7 percent and its agglomerate production decrease by 1.6 percent, all on year-on-year basis. The respective figures in metric tons were 219,000, 255,000, 233,000 and 359,000.