The Russian mining and steel producing group Mechel has announced the commissioning of out-of-furnace steel processing equipment including a ladle furnace No. 2 and a vacuum degasser, within the first stage of the upgrade of the arc-furnace melting shop No. 6 at its subsidiary Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant.
Accordingly, the new ladle furnace No. 2 with an annual capacity of 1.2 million mt will allow Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant to significantly improve cast steel quality, while the new vacuum degasser, expected to process up to 650,000 mt of steel per annum, will enable the plant to extend the range of steel grades manufactured at the arc-furnace melting shop No. 6, save costs at this processing stage and improve the quality of finished rolled products.
Within the project for the upgrade of its the arc-furnace melting shop No. 6, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant is also reconstructing its continuous casting machine No. 2, which is nearly completed, and is carrying out a large complex of environmental protection measures, including the modernization of its gas purifying system.
"The arc-furnace melting shop No. 6 is being reequipped in order to increase output to up to 1.2 million mt per year of concasted slabs, which are used for production of high quality flat products...The new equipment ensures increasing quality of our products and will allow us to increase output of plates and rolls of corrosion-resistant steel grades after reconstruction of our rolling facilities and to compete with the leading European producers," Mechel Steel Management CEO Andrei Deineko commented.