Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, a subsidiary of Russian mining and steel producing group Mechel, has commissioned its new ladle furnace No. 3, which is expected to process about 1.2 million mt of steel per year. The investments for the construction and commissioning of the furnace, supplied by the Italian plantmaker Danieli, amounted to Ruble 1.05 billion (about $36.5 million).
Accordingly, the increase in steel processing will allow Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant to raise the productivity of the continuous billet caster No. 4 at its oxygen converter shop up to 120,000 mt per year.
"The launch of the ladle furnace No. 3 is also another step to shutting down highly expensive rolling production technology which includes ingot casting and bloom processing. After today's launch the share of steel billets produced by continuous casting technology at the plant will rise to 50 percent. As a result, the performance of the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant operations will increase considerably," Mechel's senior vice president Vladimir Polin stated.
In addition, the plant's new ladle furnace No. 3 provides integrated steel processing, ensures the desired chemical composition is obtained with precision, and allows temperatures to be corrected and nonmetallic elements to be removed, all of which helps to improve the quality of metal.
The construction of ladle furnace No. 3 was implemented within the second part of the continuous casting machine No. 4 complex project at Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant's oxygen-converter shop, which is one of the major investment projects in the first stage of the plant's technical re-equipment program. The program is aimed at increasing production efficiency at Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant by reducing steel, ferroalloy and power consumption per metric ton of casting, and by significantly improving the quality of the final output - rolled products and hardware.