OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works ("MMK" or “the Company”) announces that hot-rolled products Mill 5000 has produced its 5,000,000th tonne of metal.
The pipe-making industry is the Mill’s key customer. Within the six years since Mill 5000 was commissioned, pipemakers (ChelPipe, TMK, OMK and others) have received 3.86 mln tonnes of metal designed for major pipeline projects run by companies including Gazprom, Transneft, and Lukoil. These projects include the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok, Bovanenkovo-Ukhta, Southern Corridor, Power of Siberia gas pipelines, as well as oil pipelines such as the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO), and Kuyumba-Tayshet routes.
Currently, the Mill operates at its maximum capacity. The implementation of key pipeline projects such as Power of Siberia, Turkish Stream, and the second phase of Nord Stream is expected to maintain Mill 5000 at this capacity utilisation going forward. Therefore, Mill 5000 will produce its next 5 mln tonnes of metal for shipment to customers in a much shorter term.
The shipbuilding industry is another major consumer of Mill 5000 products. MMK has supplied over 95,000 tonnes of metal to such companies. MMK has also shipped over 164,000 tonnes to the bridge-builidng industry, 355,000 tonnes to rolling-stock manufacturing facilities, and over 11,000 tonnes to carmakers. Companies operating in other sectors have received over 395,000 tonnes of metal produced by Mill 5000. Over 192,000 tonnes of the Mill’s products have been exported. Since its commissioning, the Mill has started manufacturing around 130 new grades of steel, as well as steel output in a range of various typical sizes.
Mill 5000 has an annual capacity of around 1.5 mln tonnes and is designed to produce high-margin thick-plate for the oil and gas, shipbuilding, bridge-building and machinery manufacturing industries. The unit was commissioned in July 2009 at a ceremony attended by Vladimir Putin. The Mill reached its design capacity in H2 2010.
