UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 28, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Metal Plant (ZSMK) completed the overhaul of its Blast Furnace 3. This is expected to increase the time between repairs and make the blast furnace even more productive. Around RUB 2bn got directed to all the renovations, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Relations Center reports.

‘The blast furnace jacket is now 90% new replacement; the cooling system got restored 100% and the firebrick lining of the chimney, the tuyere area, and the blast furnace stack have been fully replaced. The furnace’s charging system got repaired as well and the rails used to transport the hot-metal ladles got replaced with new ones. In combination, all these replacements and renovations will ensure the blast furnace’s accident-free performance.

Special attention was paid to improving the blast furnace department’s working conditions: the foundry section’s equipment and the air heaters got repaired, and the air-suction and air venting systems got improved,’ the press service says.

EVRAZ ZSMK had its Blast Furnace 1 overhauled in 2016 and its Blast Furnace 2 in 2017. These step-by-step renovations resulted in a productivity boost. The plant currently operates three blast furnaces all in all (total useful space: 8,000 m3). ZSMK makes around 6,000,000,000 kg of cast iron a year.