Ukraine’s Metinvest had further advanced in its strategy to become a serious player in the big coil market. The company has recently completed the hot tests at its hydraulic coiler at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, which allows the production of 32-ton hot rolled coil (HRC) at the hot strip mill 1700. The implementation of this phase marks the fulfillment of the long-term modernization project aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the company’s flat products, the official statement reads.
With the new coiler, Metinvest is now capable of up to 32-ton coil weight production with 1.2-16 mm thickness and up to 1,550 mm width. Until now, there was no commercial production of HRC over 8 mm in Ukraine, SteelOrbis has learned. The capacity of mill 1700 is 2.5 million mt coils per annum. Re-rollers and welded pipe producers are considered to be the key buyers of Metinvest’s big coil. In particular, the company has already established trade to Turkish customers and overall considers the Middle East and Europe to be the targeted consuming destinations.
Metinvest’s hot strip mill 1700 was restarted in November 2019 following a large-scale revamp targeted at mastering big coil production and increasing the capacity from 1.3 million mt to 2.5 million mt. The company will be supplying small coils from its Zaporizhstal asset, while the big coils will be supplied from Ilyich SW.