- Home
- About NLMK
- Business model
- Midstream
Midstream
Production process:
- production of pig iron in blast furnaces from raw materials
- steel smelting in basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces
- casting of semi-finished products (slabs or billets).
NLMK’s steelmaking capacities are located in close proximity to our raw material assets.
Process: The Group’s steelmaking operations are well balanced, using different methods: the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route, representing over 80% (at the low-cost Novolipetsk site), is complemented by electric arc furnace (EAF) production, representing around 20% (at NLMK Russia Long, NLMK Europe Plate, and NLMK USA)
This balanced business model allows us to quickly and flexibly adjust our production according to the market situation. The steel produced by our Group in Russia is one of the lowest-cost products in the world. This is facilitated by proximity to the sources of our raw materials, the relatively low cost of energy and labour, and the highly efficient technology we use.
Over the last few years, NLMK has been actively developing its secondary metallurgy capacity. This has allowed us to expand our product mix to include high-quality grades of steel that are in demand on the market. Recently, this competitive advantage has allowed the Group to further expand its low-cost production base in Russia: in 2011, we commissioned a new blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace, increasing our steelmaking capacity by over a third. In 2013, we commissioned a next-generation EAF plant, NLMK Kaluga, with a capacity of approximately 1.5 million tonnes of steel. In 2016, after a scheduled overhaul of Blast Furnace No.6 (BF-6) at the Group’s main production site in Lipetsk, we increased the maximum output of the furnace by 7% to 3.1 million tonnes per year. 90% of NLMK blast furnace capacity covered by resource-saving PCI.
- $250/t slab production cost at the main production site
- Steel production capacity of more than 17 m t/y, 94% of steelmaking facilities are situated in Russia
- 80%/20% BOF/EAF production ratio
- 100% of steel undergoes secondary metallurgy treatment