BMZ to modernize steel production with Siemens VAI Metals by 2013
MINSK. March 14 (Interfax) - Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ), located in the town of Zhlobin in Gomel Region, will be modernizing steel production with the assistance of Siemens VAI Metals Technologies GmbH of Austria, BMZ told Interfax.
"BMZ and Siemens VAI Metals have concluded an agreement, under which the Austrian company will do the core modernization of the main part of steel production - machines for making continuous sheet," the company source said.
The project will be done by the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013. This modernization work is part of the company's development program for 2011-2015.
Aging equipment will be replaced, energy-saving measures introduced, new equipment for casting alloy and carbon steel installed, and highly efficient modern slicing equipment put in.
This will allow the company to increase production to 1.2 million tonnes of product a year from the current 856,000 tonnes. And the new equipment will allow it to cast sections of 125x125mm and 140x140mm, outfitted for open and closed casting.
The BMZ source noted that similar Siemens VAI Metals products are sold to the world's leading metallurgical plants: in China, India, Russia, and Ukraine.