The Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced that it has concluded a €2.3 million contract with Swiss company Sytco for the supply of a new roll-grinding machine for special grinding and proper roll surface profiling for its hot strip mill which has a capacity of over five million mt per year.
The new roll treating equipment will allow NLMK to improve hot rolled strip quality by 75 percent at its main production site in Lipetsk, and to produce up to an additional 50,000 mt per year of hot rolled strip thanks to lower roll wear and fewer scheduled shutdowns.
NLMK plans to install the mill revamping equipment in Q1 2012 as part of the second stage of its technical upgrade program. At present, two machines are used for special grinding to ensure the required profile of mill rolls for the hot strip mill. An additional machine will also perform this operation following reconstruction.
By the implementation of the second stage of the technical upgrade program (2007-2012), NLMK aims to increase its steel production capacity by 40 percent to 17 million mt per year, including from nine million mt to 12.4 million mt at the Lipetsk site, and to up its finished product output from 8.9 million mt to 10.7 million mt per year, due to revamping and construction of new rolling facilities producing finished flats.