ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih has signed an agreement valued at almost $30 million with CISDI (China) to modernize its largest blast furnace No. 9.
The Chinese company will design, supply and assemble the main machinery, as well as train the AMKR personnel.
Last year a major accident occurred at the blast furnace. Since February 2018, the furnace has been under repair. On April 27, the commissioning procedure started, but on April 29, an uncontrolled ejection of liquid pig iron occured resulting in 40 tons of metal being split over.
Because of the accident, in 2018 AMKR output decreased by 900 thousand tons.
At present the company operates 4 blast furnaces, with the BF9 being the largest with the volume of 5 thousand cubic meters. It produces around a half of all pig iron and is considered one of the largest furnaces in Europe.
Modernization of the furnace will increase its capacity to 10-12 thousand tons of pig iron per day. (Ukrainian metal)