NLMK Group, a global steel company, has started hot testing at its briquetting plant, a facility to manufacture metallurgical briquettes for use in blast furnace operations. The project will enable the production of feedstock from blast furnace by-products, and the recycling of previously accumulated waste.

The production technology is NLMK’s in-house development. It was conceptualized by Ivan Kurunov, an honorary steelmaker of Russia, professor and former chief blast furnace operator at NLMK Lipetsk, who tragically died in 2017. He supervised the design of the plant. The new production facility has a total capacity of 700,000 tonnes of briquettes per year.

Briquettes are produced from Fe-containing waste, generated during blast furnace gas treatment, and coke and coal dust recovery. The technology is based on an environmentally friendly roasting-free pressing method. The resulting briquettes will be used as feedstock for hot metal production and will partially substitute primary iron ore and coal raw materials.

Grigory Fedorishin, NLMK Group President and CEO, said:“The company has invested more than $1 bn in environmental projects since 2000. This enabled us to cut specific emissions by over 50% while growing production by 60%. We have achieved the best available technology (BAT) level in Russia, and we now review all of our upgrade and new construction projects from the BAT perspective. The briquetting plant is also based on the BAT and is a great example of environmentally friendly resource-saving operations that contributes to boosting our efficiency at the same time."

The new facility was equipped with a high-efficiency dedusting and gas treatment system that will prevent dusting when handling dry materials, and bring the level of air purification in line with best available technologies.

Investment in the project totalled RUB 3 bn. The project created around 200 new jobs at NLMK.

About NLMK Group

NLMK Group is the largest steelmaker in Russia and one of the most efficient in the world.

NLMK Group’s steel products are used in various industries, from construction and machine building to the manufacturing of power-generation equipment and offshore wind turbines.

NLMK operates production facilities in Russia, Europe and the United States. The Company’s steel production capacity exceeds 17 million tonnes per year.

NLMK has the most competitive cash cost among global manufacturers and one of the highest profitability levels in the industry. In 12M 2018, the Company generated $12 billion in revenue and $3.6 billion in EBITDA. Net debt/EBITDA stood at 0.25õ. The Company has investment grade credit ratings from S&P, Moody’s, Fitch and RAEX (Expert RA).

NLMK’s ordinary shares with a 16% free-float are traded on the Moscow Stock Exchange (ticker "NLMK") and its global depositary shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange (ticker "NLMK:LI"). The share capital of the Company is divided into 5,993,227,240 shares with a par value of RUB1. For more details on NLMK shareholder capital please follow the link.