OREANDA-NEWS. July 05, 2012. Severstal, one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, announces that by 2015 the Cherepovets Steel Mill, one of the world’s largest integrated steelmaking plants and part of the Severstal Russian Steel division, will cut its non-organic dust emissions across its sintering production facilities by 33%.

This will be achieved through a program of upgrading the aspiration units at the sintering production facilities for a total investment of up to 840 million Rubles (USD 27 million).

The upgrade of six aspiration units and the recycling water supply for the No. 4 defrosting tunnel is already underway as part of the program. Preparatory work for the installation of core manufacturing equipment supplied by Germany's Nederman Filtration GmbH is currently underway at the D-7 aspiration unit, which is the largest unit.

The program is expected to be completed by 2015.

Key components of Severstal’s corporate social responsibility policy are a responsible use of natural resources and a continuous aim to reduce harmful atmospheric emissions. In October 2011, the company announced that Severstal initiated a major project to reduce atmospheric emissions at the Cherepovets Steel Mill. Between 2011 and 2015 investments in environmental projects at the Cherepovets Steel Mill will total approximately 9.3 billion rubles (USD 300 million).

Since the start of 2011, 12 new environmental projects and initiatives have been introduced across the Severstal Russian Steel division. Of these, half aim to minimize harmful atmospheric emissions with the other half focused on reducing water pollution.