Amurmetall, the only steel producer in Russia’s Far East, has restarted production of steel after a six-month break, the government of the Khabarovsk region, where the plant is located, said in a statement on July 31.
Amurmetall has been undergoing bankruptcy management since 2013. In 2015, the plant was put to auction at a price of 9.07 billion rubles, but the sale failed due to the lack of bids. In 2016, the government cut the price to 2.9 billion rubles, and planned to slash it even further to 2.467 billion rubles because of the lack of bids. But in January 2017, resident company of the Khabarovsk advanced development territory Torex bought the plant.
“Over the past weekend, Amurmetall has restarted production, and 2,700 people returned to work after six months of idle time. Over the two days, steelmakers produced 7,000 tons of steel blanks and 1,000 tons of ready-for-sale steel,” the government said, adding that production was launched after a serious maintenance work.
Currently, one blast furnace is working at the plant, and its capacity will allow the plant to produce 1 million tons of steel per year. In August, Amurmetall plans to produce 51,000 tons of steel.
Before the launch, Torex solved one of the plant’s major problems, and found a regular supplier of scrap metal among its own companies, the government said. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)