The Russian steel producer Ashinskiy Metallurgical Works (Ashinskiy) has completely shut down its open hearth furnace No. 4 within the program of liquidation of its open hearth production, which is to be completed by the end of November this year.
Accordingly, by the end of September, Ashinskiy plans to shut down its open hearth furnace No. 3, while in the beginning of November it plans to start the closure of its open hearth furnace No. 1. Following the shutdowns, the open hearth furnaces will be dismantled, while the resulting freed-up space will be used by the rolling shop which is currently under reconstruction.
The liquidation of open hearth production with a total annual capacity of 750,000-800,000 mt, follows the commissioning on July 30 this year of Ashinskiy's new 120-ton electric arc furnace (EAF-120). The switch from open hearth to electro-smelting steel production will allow Ashinskiy to save about $7 per each metric ton of melted steel, and to reduce the time of a single melting process from the current four (open hearth) hours to 50 minutes in the future.
The designed capacity of one million mt of the new EAF-120 is planned to be reached in November-December this year.
The total cost of the reconstruction of steelmaking facilities at Ashinskiy exceeds Ruble 10 billion ($323 million). In addition, in the coming years Ashinskiy will also invest about Ruble 18-20 billion ($581-645 million) in the radical modernization of its rolling facilities.