Zaporizhstal nears recommissioning of blast furnace

2017-04-13

The company completed the most difficult stage of construction, according to the mill's general director Rostislav Shurma, with 7,000t of new metal structures built and 13,000t of old ones disassembled during the five months of reconstruction work. Now the company is installing the power supply, preparing the equipment and heating air for the blast furnace, which should be re-commissioned by May.

Zaporizhstal can produce around 3.7mn t/yr of hot-rolled steel and over 1mn t/yr of cold-rolled products working at full capacity. In March the mill ramped up its steel production by 9.2pc on the year to 325,000t, but total first quarter output was down compared with the year earlier, because of the blast furnace overhaul.