Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works’ (MMK) hot-rolling Mill 2000 produced 527,955 tonnes of rolled metal in July, a new monthly record for this unit.

The previous record was achieved in May, when the mill produced 527,505 tonnes of product.

The unit, which was commissioned in 1994 and is one of the most productive in Russia, is located within MMK’s sheet-rolling shop No 10.

The mill was modernised in the mid-2000s, with a fourth heating furnace added and the mechanical equipment renewed; this allowed thicker sheet with improved mechanical properties to be produced.

In 2015, the unit passed the milestone of 100 million tonnes of hot-rolled product.

The width of sheet produced by the mill varies from 760 to 1,830mm, and the range of items manufactured numbers about 1,000; these include materials for pipe production, the construction industry and a broad range of engineering applications.

The mill also produces grades of steel for naval applications, as well as steel from which automotive sheets are subsequently manufactured.

In 2017, MMK (www.eng.mmk.ru) produced 12.9 million tonnes of crude steel and 11.6 million tonnes of commercial steel products; it had sales of $7,546 million.