Mechel announces the commissioning of the first stage of new wire drawing equipment at the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant
Beloretsk, Russia - June 21, 2021 - Mechel Group (MOEX: MTLR, NYSE: MTL), a leading Russian mining and metallurgical company, announces the launch of four drawing mills at the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant for the production of import-substituting wire. Equipment worth 220 million rubles was purchased as part of a project to modernize the steel wire and rope production of BMK. This is the first batch of equipment put into operation, a total of 12 mills will be installed under the project.Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mechel PAO Igor Zyuzin, CEO Mechel PAO Oleg Korzhov, Managing Director of BMK AO Sergei Fedorov and other distinguished guests.
BMK launched an investment project to modernize its steel wire and rope production in 2016. Its cost is 1.5 billion rubles, of which 750 million rubles is a concessional loan from the Industrial Development Fund of the Russian Federation. The project is scheduled for completion in 2023. It provides for a large-scale technical re-equipment of steel wire shops with the installation of new drawing machines and auxiliary equipment, as well as the reconstruction of water circulation cycles and the installation of a new wastewater treatment plant for steel wire rope production.
All new lines are equipped with a mechanical descaling system with wire rods (wire blanks). This will make it possible to abandon the chemical method of processing its surface and to gradually close the pickling departments in a number of steel wire shops of the plant.
The new drawing machines will produce low-carbon and high-carbon wire (billets for rope and spring wire) from wire rod. The total productivity of the four mills will be up to 50 thousand tons of products per year.
“One of the main tasks of the joint work of the Government of the Republic with Mechel is to ensure that labor productivity at the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant increases, new jobs, wages rose. In recent years, high environmental friendliness has become a mandatory requirement for industrial enterprises. And the new equipment significantly reduces the burden on the environment. I would like to thank Mechel's management for this work and congratulate the plant's staff on the launch of production, ”said Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov.
Mechel Group is consistently implementing a strategy of transition to the best available technologies at its enterprises. Thanks to the timely support of the Industrial Development Fund and the Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan, we continue to modernize the plant by installing modern equipment. This will allow BMK to reach a new level of product quality and ensure environmental safety, "commented Oleg Korzhov, General Director of Mechel PAO.
" The modernization will enable the production of import-substituting wire with high quality characteristics. New machines, due to direct-flow drawing with high-quality cooling, are able to provide products with the necessary plasticity and uniformity of mechanical properties along the entire length of the wire, to exclude twisting and damage to the metal surface during drawing. Springs, ropes and other products made from such wire will have a longer service life ", - noted the managing director of JSC BMK Sergey Fedorov.
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PJSC Mechel Ekaterina Videman Tel .: +7-495-221-88-88ekaterina.videman@mechel.com
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Mechel is a global mining and metallurgical company. The company's products are supplied to Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electricity. All businesses operate in a single production chain: from raw materials to high value-added products.
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Certain statements in this press release may contain assumptions or predictions about upcoming events or the future financial performance of Mechel PAO in accordance with the provisions of the 1995 US Securities Litigation Reform Act. We would like to warn you that these statements are only assumptions, and the actual course of events or results may differ materially from those stated. We do not intend to revise or update these statements. We refer you to the documents that Mechel periodically submits to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 20-F. These documents contain and describe important factors, including those identified in the "Risk Factors" section and "Note on the forecasts contained in this document" in Form 20-F. These factors can be the reason for the existing
