Russia's Kemerovo city-based company Stroyservis has announced that its Perm region-based coke producing subsidiary Gubakha Coke has commissioned its second coke battery, i.e., coke battery No.1-BIS, which will allow it to double its coke output from 650,000 mt to 1.3 million mt per year.
Gubakha Coke's coke battery No.1-Bis had been in condition of ‘hot idle'. The decision on its commissioning was taken by Stroyservis after the plant was acquired from the Russian pipe producing company OMK in May 2010. Previously, Gubakha Coke had just been operating its coke battery No.2-BIS with an annual capacity of 650,000 mt of coke. For the implementation of this project Stroyservis invested more than Ruble 100 million (about $3.4 million) in 2010.
In 2011, Gubakha Coke produced 514,000 mt of coke, registering a 68 percent increase over 2009, while its shipments were equal to its output level. In 2011, Gubakha Coke plans to increase its coke production to more than one million mt, which is also expected to be exported to steel producing companies in Ukraine and Belarus.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Stroyservis, which is specialized in mining and beneficiation of coal, mining machinery and metal trading, possesses five coal mines in the Kemerovo region, which supplies about 73 percent of coking coal to Gubakha Coke.