The Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant, the flagship company of NLMK Group, has begun hot testing of a new furnace for heating steel billets before rolling at mill 2000. Its launch will increase the production of hot rolled steel in Lipetsk by 110 thousand tons per year (+ 2%) , to reduce energy consumption by 50% and almost halve emissions into the atmosphere.
The walking beam heating furnace was installed in place of the previous generation pusher-type furnace. Moving blanks inside the furnace using movable beams eliminates the formation of defects on the metal surface and improves the heating parameters of the blank.
After reconstruction, the furnace productivity will increase by 23% to 320 tons of metal per hour (2.25 million tons per year) ... The furnace is equipped with a modern automated control system based on a learning mathematical model. The system will independently adjust the temperature conditions in the furnace, depending on the range of metal.
Investment in the project amounted to 4.3 billion rubles. It is planned to bring the unit to full capacity by the end of 2019.
The construction of the heating furnace is one of the key projects of Strategy 2022, which will allow NLMK Group to “expand” the bottleneck in the flat-rolled steel production chain and increase the output of high-quality hot rolled steel. With the commissioning of this furnace, the entire volume of metal for the hot rolling mill will be processed on highly efficient, resource-saving new generation units, "commented Konstantin Lagutin, Vice President for Investment Projects of NLMK Group.
In 2004- 2011 years Three new-generation furnaces were installed at the Lipetsk hot rolling mill. The renewed furnace has become the fourth in a row, its commissioning will also allow decommissioning the last old pusher-type heating furnace.
Heating furnace No. 2 was installed 10 months earlier, one month ahead of schedule, under the conditions of the existing hot rolling production. When designing the unit and organizing construction and installation works, a full cycle of BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology was applied, which made it possible to develop a digital twin of the future unit and the construction process, eliminate possible errors in advance, and optimize the volume and schedule of construction and installation works even at the design stage .
Information about NLMK Group
NLMK Group is a vertically integrated metallurgical company, the largest in Russia and one of the world's most efficient producers of steel products.
Steel products NLMK Group is used in various industries, from construction and mechanical engineering to power equipment and offshore wind turbines.
NLMK's production assets are located in Russia, Europe and the United States. The company's steel production capacity exceeds 17 million tonnes per year.
NLMK demonstrates high cost competitiveness among global manufacturers, the company's profitability is one of the highest in the industry. The company's revenue in 2018 was $ 12 billion, EBITDA was $ 3.6 billion. The Net Debt /EBITDA ratio was 0.25x. The company has investment grade credit ratings from S&P, Moody's, Fitch and Expert RA.
NLMK's common shares, which have a free-float of 19%, are traded on the Moscow Stock Exchange (ticker “NLMK”), global depository shares - on the London Stock Exchange (ticker "NLMK: LI"). The share capital of the Company is divided into 5,993,227,240 ordinary shares with a par value of 1 Russian ruble.
For more information on NLMK's share capital, please follow the link.
Download photos and corporate videos of NLMK Group at the media bank link.
