MMK’s continuous hot-dip galvanising unit reaches full capacity utilisation

The new continuous hot-dip galvanising unit No.3, built by Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) in 2017, produced 334.6 thousand tonnes of galvanised metal in 2019.

A year earlier, the unit produced 278.9 thousand tonnes of galvanised steel. As such, it is very close to the design capacity of 360 thousand tonnes per year. The unit, built on the site of sheet rolling shop No. 11, is designed to manufacture products with a zinc coating, which is applied by hot-dip galvanising to thin-sheet cold-rolled products made of low-carbon steel. The equipment for the new unit was supplied by SMS group from Germany; the contract was signed in July 2015. The project cost 6 billion rubles. The cold-rolled strip without coating, which is produced by sheet rolling shop No. 11, is used as a semi-finished rolled stock for the continuous hot-dip galvanising unit No.3.

According to Victor Rashnikov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MMK, this project was implemented in accordance with the plant's strategy to increase the share of deep processing products with high added value. "This choice of strategy has never failed us. With the launch of continuous hot-dip galvanising unit No. 3, MMK's capacity to produce galvanised steel exceeded two million tonnes per year, whereas back in 2000, it was only 100 thousand tonnes," said Victor Rashnikov.

In November 2017, the construction project of MMK’s continuous hot-dip galvanising unit No.3 was recognised as the 'main event of the year in Russian metallurgy in 2017', which is awarded annually in the framework of the International Industrial Exhibition 'Metal-Expo'.