OREANDA-NEWS. The Azovmash plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, flagship of Ukraine’s heavy engineering, will deliver in 2007 to Russia’s Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant, NLMK, three oxygen-supplying aggregates for two converter shops built with Azovmash assistance. 

According to Interfax-Ukraine report, three contracts to supply the equipment were signed by Ukrainian and Russian plants soon after Azovmash had won a tender announced by NLMK. The cost of the contracts have not been disclosed.

Two aggregates will be installed at the 300-ton converter and one at the 160-ton converter, replacing Austrian oxygen blowers. 

Another tender participant was the Yuzhno-Uralsky Engineering Plant based in Orsk, Russia.
Azovmash got the upper hand in the tender because it proposed new technology which had been tested at Mittal Steel Temirtau steel maker in Kazakhstan. There, Azovmash had installed three of its oxygen blowers. 

Azovmash’s sales target for 2006 is a 10.8 percent increase from 2005, or up to 3.2 billion hryvnias. The plant also seeks to raise railroad cars production, planning to make 9,960 cars in 2006, or up by 19.1 percent yoy. 

In January-November Azovmash raised sales by 5.9 percent compared to a similar period in 2005 to 2.8 billion hryvnias.

In 2005, Azovmash increased its sales by 7.7 percent yoy to 2.859 billion hryvnias, raising production by 9.5% to 2.919 billion hryvnias, selling also 2.456 billion hryvnias worth of rail cars.