This was reported by the Technical Director of JSC "Severstal" Mr. Alexander Stepanov. Giving his comments on this issue Mr. A. Stepanov said that in 2003 JSC "Severstal" continued construction and reconstruction of 200 large objects. They include process units needed for improvement and development of properties of steel and for commercial production of new products for Fuel and Energy Industry. More than 1 billion Roubles were applied in 2003 towards this purpose in the rolling mills alone.
This amount was used for implementation of a number of measures in Hot Strip Mill #1 and the new plate leveler was installed in the heavy plate cutting line (process equipment manufactured at NKMZ, Ukraine) in order to improve plate flatness.
Furthermore, according to the Technical Director, "most of reconstruction measures for the "Mill 5000" in Hot Strip Mill #3 at JSC "Severstal" site in Kolpino, near St.Petersburg have been implemented. 1,3 billion Roubles were spent in 2003 for erection of the objects allowing the metallurgical company to improve the quality of hot rolled steel for pipes and shipbuilding. The major objects are: plate leveler, ultrasonic testing unit "North", controlled strip cooling installation, i.e. process units providing new technological opportunities for the "Mill 5000" of HSM #3 in production of the major product mix rolled products for Fuel and Energy Industry and Shipbuilding Industry.
The analysis of investments in 2000-2003 shows that over 3 billion Roubles were spent towards improvements of processes to produce steel for Fuel and Energy Industry in all three Hot Strip Mills of JSC "Severstal". Taking into account the activities implemented in steelmaking facilities for improvement of steel quality, the total investments for this purpose during 4 years make around 6 billion Roubles.
In 2004 JSC "Severstal" plans to double investments in capital construction, priority being given both to production of new kinds of products, and advancing the existing technologies in order to improve quality and expand the product mix for strategically important industries.
25 Febrary 2004
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