OREANDA-NEWS. September 5, 2007. Growth in production volumes at the open hearth shop of Mariupol Ilyich iron and steel works for the first seven months of 2007 reached 106,000mt. Thus, the workers of the Ilyich open hearth shop smelted during the seven months of 2007 the quantity of steel, exceeding by 5.44% the quantity, smelted in the same period of the previous year. As Vyacheslav Prakhnin, the head of the open hearth shop said continuous, non-stop functioning of all six open hearth furnaces was now ensured. It allows not only to reach the planned production volumes, but also reach their steady growth.

Last year the workers of the open hearth shop failed to manufacture just 50,000mt to reach 2 million production volume for the first seven months: producing only 1,948,701mt. of steel. It was reported to “Ilyichevets” newspaper by Galina Shaldervan, 1-st grade economist. This year the steel-smelters finished the seven months period at 2,054,689 mt. figure. One of the key factors, making it possible to reach such production indices was acceleration of open hearth heats. So, on February 28th, 2007 the record-braking high speed heat was made on No5 open hearth furnace: steel was smelted just in 6 hours and 50 minutes, instead of 10 hours and 36 minutes planned. In that time the steel-smelters of No2 brigade manufactured 928 tons of red-hot metal, exceeding the rated norm by 325 tons. Besides, high production indices are also promoted by creation of more comfortable and up-to-date conditions of work for every shop worker by the works’ and shop’s leadership. In December 2006 capital repairs of the shop’s amenity rooms were completed and renewed medical room was reopened last summer. This February a stomatological cabinet was opened, which also serves the workers of near-by shops. At the moment the shop’s canteen is under repairs.

The open hearth shop of “Ilyich” works was commissioned in 1962 and now 866 persons work there. Its workers have smelted more than 145 million of steel since the day it was opened. Every year the shop smelts more than 3 million mt. of steel, which goes to 1150 slab rolling mill and then to 1700 rolling mill for subsequent manufacturing of cold and hot rolled coils, the bulk of which is exported.