A new ladle-furnace unit will be installed in the Converter Shop of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works.
   On the seventeenth of November V.F. Rashnikov, General Director of OAO MMK, signed a contract with VAI FUCHS, Austria, for the supply of a new ladle-furnace unit. The Austrian side during the contract signing was represented by Karl Gruber, Member of VAI Board, Werner Auer, Executive Director, Horst Blautzik, Sales Director, Alfons Schilcher, Commercial Director for Russia. The contract value is EURO 3.5 ml. Commissioning of the new equipment is scheduled in nine months. This will expand the Converter Shop steel heating capacity, partially replace chemical heating by electric-arc heating and reduce pig iron consumption. The new unit will operate in a single complex with the existing ladle-furnace unit, steel refining unit and vacuum degasser.
    Construction of the ladle-furnace is the first and the main step in implementation of the comprehensive investment project for revamping of the Oxygen Converter Shop at OAO MMK. The investment project also includes the work related to power supply, revamping of waterworks system, installation of a semi-gantry scrap charging machine. The project is directed to reduce pig iron consumption due to increase of steel scrap share in the converter charge.

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