UMMC launches steel plant in Tyumen
TYUMEN. July 24 (Interfax) - UMMC-Steel, a division of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC), launched a steel mill in Tyumen on Wednesday with capacity to produce 550,000 tonnes of long products per year.
The plant has begun comprehensive hot testing of the main units of the electric furnace, ladle furnace, vacuum degasser, continuous casting machine and rolling mill. The core equipment was supplied by Italy's Danieli.
UMMC-Steel engineer Vadim Kolykhalov told reporters that all of the plant equipment is operating together for the first time today. On the first day of operations the plant expects "to pour three ladles of steel of 70 tonnes each," he said. The plant is expected to reach design capacity by the end of the year.
UMMC chief executive Andrei Kozitsyn said at a press conference that once the plant reaches design capacity it will be paying 600 million to 1 billion rubles in taxes annually.
The construction of the plant is expected to pay for itself in nine years, he said. "If you take today's prices," he added.
Kozitsyn also said that the plant, which will process 640,000 tonnes of scrap metal annually, will employ about 1,000 people.
The mill's products are intended for the construction industry, oil and gas sector and machine-building industry.
It was reported earlier that the estimated cost of the mill is 22 billion rubles. The project has received government support in the amount of more than 1.5 billion rubles, including 953.3 million rubles from the Russian Investment Fund and 607.7 million rubles from the Tyumen Region budget.
The plant will primarily operate on scrap steel collected in the Tyumen Region, including the Khanty Mansiysk Autonomous District and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. It will ship its products to the Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions.
UMMC-Steel includes a number of ferrous metal assets, including core units Serov Metallurgical Plant and Bogoslovsk Mining , as well as several scrap yards.