ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih, the biggest mining and steel plant in Ukraine, summed up the implementation of its investment program for 2019. Last year the company invested $415.4 million in the development of production. Of these, operating costs amounted to $116 million, and capital – to $299.4 million.
2019 was a difficult year for all plants of mining and steel complex of Ukraine, while the second half of the year was more difficult than the first one. It was increasingly difficult for Ukrainian exporters to sell their steel products due to a significant drop of prices and general decrease in steel consumption on the world markets. Along with rising costs, this negatively impacted on the financial condition of the steel companies and led to decrease in production. Nevertheless, ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih has managed to maintain fairly high rate of investments and continued the implementation of the strategic projects.
Last year the plant almost completed a large-scale investment project of modernization of the light-section mill No. 250-4, in which it invested over $60 million. Thanks to the reconstruction of the mill, ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih now has the opportunity to produce rebar No. 8-24 in bundles with spooling that is a new type of product in the company’s product mix. At the moment, hot trials of the new spooler line are continuing.
Also construction and installation works were completed last year, and continuous casting machine No. 3 was put into design capacity. In addition to that, a ladle furnace and CCM No. 2 were being prepared for the start-up. The total cost of construction of the new continuous steel-casting complex exceeds $160 million.
The reconstruction of the Sinter Plant No. 2 with the installation of modern electrostatic precipitators does not stop either: three out of six sintering machines have already been modernized; last December the ecological modernization of the fourth sintering machine began. As a result of the modernization, dust emissions from each of the six sintering machines will be reduced by 250 tons per year – a cumulative decrease of about 1,500 tons per year. The entire project to upgrade the second Sinter Plant is estimated at $170 million.
Besides, in 2019 the modernized turbo-blower No. 15 at HPP-3 was commissioned, which ensured stable and economical production of cold blast for feeding of blast furnace No. 9. The smooth running of the largest blast furnace at the plant and its performance depend on the stable supply of blast and oxygen concentration. The project cost was about $8 million.
The renewal of equipment in mining department of ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih continued. Thus, in 2019 two Komatsu diesel excavators with bucket capacity of 12 cubic meters were purchased and put into operation, two new crushers of medium and fine crushing were installed and two new mills for the ore dressing plants were purchased.
Despite the reduction of the investment program budget, in 2020 the company intends to complete the implementation of key investment projects and continue the implementation of new ones. These are replacing the gas treatment plants of the block-1 of the BOF Shop (BOFs Nos. 1-3), modernization of blast furnace No. 9, construction of a new oxygen block and pellet plant for production of 4.5-5 million tons of pellets per year. The programs will continue to replace the plant’s railways, restore buildings and structures, modernize gas pipelines, and introduce environmental measures to reduce the environmental footprint.
Over the 14 years of operations in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal’s total investments have amounted to $9.7 billion ($4.8 billion is the amount of the acquisition of the plant during privatization + $4.9 billion invested in development of production). Until 2022 the total volume of capital investments of ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih in the development of production will be $1.8 billion. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)