The Russian steelmaker and iron ore producer Evraz Group (Evraz) has placed a €30 million order with Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) for the reconstruction of the continuous billet caster No. 3 at its subsidiary Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works (NTMK).
Accordingly, the reconstruction of NTMK's concaster No. 3, which will begin in November 2010 and will last for two and a half months, will allow the increase of the unit's annual production capacity from the current level of 700,000 mt to up to one million mt, and will also enable the producer to expand its product range.
At the same time, within the framework of the contract signed with Evraz in 2006 for the modernization of NTMK's the oxygen converter shop, Siemens VAI is to upgrade the plant's oxygen converter No. 4. Previously, the Austrian plantmaker reconstructed NTMK's converters Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, following the implementation of Evraz's investment projects, four new converters and continuous casting machines will operate at NTMK, allowing it to increase the output of its oxygen converter shop to 4.5 million mt of steel per year.