Metalloinvest, a leading global iron ore and HBI producer and supplier, and one of the regional producers of high-quality steel, is investing 460 mn roubles in the reconstruction of Heating Furnace #2 in the second rolling unit of Alexey Ugarov OEMK.
Implementation of the project will allow to eliminate the formation of a range of defects in the production of products, in turn reducing costs and allowing higher shipment volumes of high quality long products (Special Bar Quality, SBQ) to consumers.
Alexey Kushnarev, Managing Director of Alexey Ugarov OEMK, noted: “The reconstruction of Heating Furnace #2 is part of a programme to improve customer focus and quality of SBQ. Successful technical re-equipment of the main production divisions at the enterprise, as part of this programme, will allow us to increase the share of high quality rolled products as part of the total volume of OEMK products by 300,000 tonnes and reinforce the Company’s position on the market.”
The main technological equipment and services supplier is Italian company Tenova.
The heating furnace is scheduled to be commissioned in December 2022.
As part of the reconstruction, the design of the walking hearth located on the last 12 metres of the furnace will be amended with the introduction of water-cooled beams, and additional side burners will be installed in the lower part of the milling zone. Additionally, new water treatment units for supplying cooling water, radiant dome burners with a spark ignition system for milling zones 4 and 5, and combustion controlling equipment for all zones, including the first automation level, will also be introduced.
These solutions will prevent the formation of scale cakes on the hearth of the furnace, along which the billets move during the heating process. Damage from scale on the lower edges of the billets would lead to defects in finished rolled products and their needing to be written off.

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A comprehensive programme to improve customer focus and quality of SBQ is being implemented at Alexey Ugarov OEMK from March 2017 and is planned to be completed by 2025. Its main goal is to maintain Metalloinvest’s leading positions on the special quality rolled products market in Russia and to facilitate stable SBQ supply to export consumers.