The reconstruction of Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works’ (MMK) blast furnace No.1 has been completed.

The cost of this project, which was carried out in under six months, was RUB 5.4 billion (just over $85 million), of which RUB 2.35 billion covered the cost of equipment, while the rest was for the construction and assembly of the works and other costs.

As part of the reconstruction process, a technical refitting of the furnace was carried out, which involved the complete dismantlement and replacement of all the old elements in the furnace.

There has also been a change in the configuration of the casting beds, as they are now two-tiered.

In the intermediary space, it is now possible to fit ‘transport flumes’ for pig iron and slag, plus air ducts for the aspiration system, without taking up additional space at the site.

The reconstruction of blast furnace No.1 and the construction of the aspiration system will reduce dust emissions by 600 tonnes a year.

Blast furnace No.1, which produced the first pig iron in Magnitogorsk (www.eng.mmk.ru) (on 1 February 1932), was built by the American company McKee.

It was fully reconstructed at the end of the 1990s.

After that, the furnace’s volume increased to 1,370m³, and productivity reached 1.2 million tonnes per year (3,000 tonnes of pig iron on a daily basis).

In 2017, the company produced 12.9 million tonnes of crude steel and 11.6 million tonnes of commercial steel products. MMK Group had sales of $7,546 million in 2017.