Mechel has invested $59.6mn at the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant in a bid to increase its steel output by 15pc.
The investment was used to upgrade the plant’s blast furnace #4 and converter #1 that are used in the facility’s steelmaking process. The company said in a statement that the upgrades were a part of the quadripartite ecological agreement between Mechel and different departments of the Russian government to establish ecological measures for the federal clean air program.
This upgrade required dismantling and rebuilding all the equipment in both the areas of the plant. Close to $20mn of the total investment was used to upgrade blast furnace #4, which has a capacity to handle 1.1mn mt pig iron annually. The gas produced while smelting the pig iron is re-used as fuel after the upgrade.
The Russian company is now working on the second stage of this blast furnace’s upgrade to prevent any leaks from the furnace into the atmosphere.
The upgrade on converter #1, will enable it to minimize waste emissions produced during the steelmaking process. The converter can handle 1.3mn mt and will decrease waste emission by more than 30pc.