
The company begins a comprehensive reconstruction of blast furnace No. 9, which is estimated to cost about $270 million.
After the renovation the total dust emissions at Blast Furnace No. 9 will be significantly reduced thanks to a new aspiration system and modern gas cleaning.
Blast Furnace No. 9, which is as tall as a 35-story building, now produces 9,200 tons of iron per day. After the restructuring, the raw material for the furnace will be not only sinter, but also pellets - a product of the new pelletizing plant. In this case the pig iron output will increase up to 12 500 tons per day. Both projects - reconstruction of BF-9 and construction of the pelletizing plant - are the key ones in the investment program of the enterprise for production upgrade and ecomodernization.