UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 15, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped its first batch of new hot-rolled metal goods with unique wear characteristics to customer. The improved performance parameters result from a special technology for removal of excess slag from the surface of a metal sheet, the plant’s press service reports.

The new produce with unique parameters stems from Kama Trade Tatarstan (currently a resident in Priority Social and Economic Development Area in Naberezhnye Chelny) putting up Brandsteel Metal-Processing Center (capacity: 240,000,000 kg a year) with support and contribution from MMK.

‘MMK also acts as the new Center’s primary partner, as Brandsteel is expected to process the plant’s metal for us. MMK is interested in getting hot-rolled goods with improved wear characteristics and in fully meeting the customers’ needs for rolled goods with quality coating and an appealing look. We can now supply our existing and potential customers (in the car-making industry, first and foremost) a new type of metal goods with high added value that are unique to the Russian market at the moment,’ the press service says.

The new goods are made with the help of the revolutionary heavy plate treatment technology known as Eco Pickled Surface (EPS). EPS is currently unique to both Russian and European markets. Metallurgical plants now typically rely on the hydrochloric acid/sulphuric acid pickling methods. Unlike the acid-based technologies, EPS is a mechanical process that uses steel shots and water with added anticorrosive agent, all of which get recirculated multiple times within the system.