NLMK, Russia's largest steelmaker, has started hot testing the new beneficiation section at its Stoilendkiy mining and beneficiation plant, the company said on May 22.
The new additional beneficiation section will enable Stoilensky to increase its concentrate output from 17.5 million tonnes per year to 20 million tpy, while its ore processing capacity will move up to 42 million tonnes by 2021 from 37 million tonnes.
The commissioning of the additional beneficiation section is scheduled for June 2020, while the additional concentrate will be used for pellet production and further shipped to NLMK's Lipetsk site.
"The new equipment is characterized by low energy and grinding body consumption rates, high reliability and a lower maintenance load, enabling a 30% cut in operational costs and an increase in concentrate Fe content," Dmitry Sotnikov, NLMK vice president for investment projects, said.
Steel output at the Lipetsk site increased by 11% quarter on quarter to 4.2 million tonnes due to the completion of major repairs at NLMK Lipetsk's blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace operations in the fourth quarter of2019.
In 2019, the Lipetsk site produced 12 million tonnes of steel, down by 10% year on year due to the capital repairs of steelmaking equipment, the company said.
The company's target is to produce 14.2 million tonnes of steel at the Lipetsk site by 2023, it said.
Earlier in May, the company announced that it started the
commissioning of its new 1.8 million-tpy continuous casting machine for the production of heavy slab and plans to receive first slabs in June 2020.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $330-350 per tonne on May 18,
widening from $335-340 per tonne fob a week earlier.