Russian premier to attend opening of NLMK-Kaluga plant
MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - OJSC Novolipetsk Steel will put a new NLMK-Kaluga plant, which will manufacture steel and building rolled steel products, into operation on Tuesday.
The Russian government's press service has reported that the ceremony in the city of Kaluga will be attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev and Kaluga Region Governor Anatoly Artamonov.
The new enterprise was put on a test run at the end of May. During the trials, its arc-furnace process and rolling-mill shops produced the first tonne of steel.
The plant is expected to manufacture 1.5 million tonnes of steel and 900,000 tonnes of rolled products a year. Its rolled products capacity might subsequently be increased to 1.5 million tonnes a year.
A total of 38 billion rubles has been invested in the enterprise, which has been equipped with arc furnaces and rolling-mill machinery by Siemens VAI (Austria) and SMS Meer S.p.A. (Italy).
NLMK expects the Kaluga plant's operations to result in an increase of building rolled steel product sales by 350,000 tonnes this year.
The NLMK Group includes Russia-based assets Novolipetsk Steel Plant, iron ore miner Stoilensky GOK , coke producer Altai Koks, VIZ-Stal, LLC NLMK-sort and Maxi Group; and overseas NLMK USA, NLMK Europe. Chairman of the NLMK board of directors Vladimir Lisin controls 85.54% of shares via Fletcher Group Holdings and LKB-Invest. A total of 7.83% of the group's global depositary shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange, and another 6.63% of shares are owned by management and are in the free float.