The Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has announced the commissioning of the 450,000 mt continuous hot dip galvanizing line at MMK-Atakas, its 50 percent plus one share-owned joint venture company with Atakaş Şirketler Grubu, one of the leading Turkish mining companies.
Accordingly, the galvanized steel from the unit will be both sold and also used for further processing at MMK-Atakas' 200,000 mt capacity color coating line, commissioned on January 15, 2010.
Construction and facilities installation at MMK-Atakas is advancing in accordance with schedule. As SteelOrbis previously reported, the company is planning to commission a PPPL with 1,200.000 mt capacity, a cold rolling line with 750,000 mt capacity and a steel mill and a cold rolling facilities with 2.4 million mt capacity by the end of 2010. In addition, the company's steel service center and painting and galvanizing lines being built in Istanbul are to start operating in 2010.
MMK-Atakas will have a designed capacity of 2.3 million mt per year of finished flat steel products, which are to be supplied to the Turkish domestic market and also exported. The MMK-Atakas project was started in October 2007 and full-cycle production is expected to be launched by the end of December 2010.