The Ukrainian company Unisteel plans in June 2010 to start production at its new 100,000 mt annual capacity HDG line at the city of Kriviy Rih, in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.
Accordingly, in March this year Unisteel will complete the installation of the line's equipment, in April-May training will be carried out for staff, and in June the first 4,000 mt of galvanized coils is scheduled to be produced.
The new HDG line will produce galvanized coils of 0.3-2.0 mm thickness and of up to 1,250 mm width, and with zinc coating thickness from 90 to 400 g/m2, from Russian and Ukrainian cold rolled coils.
The total investments in Unisteel's HDG line amount to $21.5 million. Among the investors was also the Russian company Unistud, a HDG producer with an annual capacity of 60,000 mt, based at Dzerzhinsk in the region of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia.
According to Unisteel's commercial director Dmitry Ogorodtsev, the new line will produce high price category products, which will allow the company to compete for market share not only with domestic producers, but also with imports. Later, the company plans to start focusing on exports and to expand the range of available services.
Currently in Ukraine, there are three HDG producers, including Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol (Ilyich), Module Plant, with a total capacity of 560,000 mt per year, and AZST-Color with a capacity of up to 70,000 mt of polymer coated products per year.
In addition, in 2010, the Ukrainian company Metals and Polymers plans to commission a new plant for production of galvanized and color coated coils with an annual capacity of 100,000 mt and 70,000 mt respectively.