UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) held a professional skills contest for boxmen from the steel-smelting department for the first time this year, TMK press service reports.

The contest was coordinated by the department’s management and the plant’s Youth Council. This is the first time such a contest has been held; the idea is to assess the boxmen’s skills and to make sure they meet the modern production standards. To ensure the unfailing performance of the steel-smelting furnace and the CC machine, a boxman must be able to efficiently prepare charging and doping materials, identify the composition and parameters of the furnace charge from the way it looks, and comply with safety regulations.

The contest was two-fold: first, the contestants had to answer multiple-choice questions on labor protection, labor legislation, and the plant’s history. The judges’ panel would then look at the test results and at the quality of the practical task, where the participants had to identify and classify certain samples of furnace charge.

Alexander Subbotin and Sergey Solovitch were given the first and the second prizes in the skills competition. The winners were given money prizes and family tours to Trubnik Recreation Resort. Contestants who were in the third and the fourth places were awarded with runner-up prizes as well.