OREANDA-NEWS. September 2, 2009. Russian merchant bar producer Gurievsky Metals Plant plans to produce 16,700 tonnes of crude steel via its open-hearth furnace in August, the Estar Holding subsidiary announced. The amount is a 16.5% increase from the 12,238 tonnes produced in July. This puts the plant's crude steel production at close to 100% of its 200,000 tpy capacity. Gurievsky was one of six plants owned by Estar to enter into bankruptcy protection at the beginning of June. The plant was stopped in late May, but restarted on June 8. (MB, July 7 & June 9)

The plant was able to restart thanks to assistance from the Kemerovo region and the Guryevsky district in purchasing raw material supplies. Gurievsky is also set to roll 14,260 tonnes of low-carbon merchant bar in August, up from 11,013 tonnes in June. But alloyed steel grinding ball production is set to slightly fall to 4,500 tonnes from almost 4,600 tonnes in July.