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Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant

History

The plant’s construction began during the World War II and was completed in April 1943 at a speed unprecedented for such a powerful plant of a full metallurgical cycle.

The plant was built to meet the needs of Soviet defense and took part in creating the military industry of the Soviet Union and Russia as well as space programs. It was also the chief steel supplier for science-intensive sector of the economy.

1942
By that date, the plant had produced hundreds of thousands of tonnes of coke, pig iron, steel and rolled products. One-fifth of all Soviet missiles and one-third of all Soviet tanks and airplanes were made of Chelyabinsk steel.
1945
The plant successfully overcame the transition period’s hardships and managed to preserve its production potential and the capacity for fast growth.
1990s
ChMK joined Mechel Group. It is fully integrated with many of the group’s enterprises and remains the flagship of Mechel’s steel division.
2001
On April 20, the plant launched its agglomeration workshop #2 with a project capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of agglomerate a year. The launch of this new facility ensured that the plant reached a new level of environment protection. Once the new agglomeration facility was launched and the outdated workshop #1 was halted, the plant's waste emissions into the air went down 8-10 times. No such drastic upgrades of agglomeration facilities were made on any Russian steelmaking plants over the past 30 years.
2005
In December, the first stage of the universal rolling mill's complex -- the billet concaster #5 with out-of-furnace steel processors -- was launched. The concaster, with its 1.2-million-tonne annual capacity, is due to provide the universal rolling mill with top-quality continuously cast billets.
2011
In July, the universal rolling mill was launched. The mill is Russia's first complex universal production facility of high-quality structural shapes and rails of 12.5 to 100 meters long. The mill's complex includes all necessary technological operations and employs state-of-the-art global rolling, correction, processing and quality control technologies. The mill’s capacity is up to 1.1 million tonnes of finished product a year. Investment in the project totaled some 715 million US dollars.
2013

In June, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant’s rails up to 100 meters in length were certified as compliant with requirements set in the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union.

In August, the plant received the approval of Russia’s Federal Agency for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks for registering its trademark “Chelyabinsk Steel”. The trademark was based on the ChS (Chelyabinsk Steel) brand granted to the plant in 1970 by the Soviet Ferrous Metallurgy Ministry for marking top-quality rolls.

2015

In February, the plant’s arc furnace workshop #6 (today’s arc furnace department) produced its millionth tonne of stainless steel.

2016

In March, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant’s universal rolling mill was acknowledged best import substitution project by Russia’s Union of Industrialists and Enterpreneurs.

In April, an expert council of Russian Industry and Trade Ministry’s Industry Development Fund decided to loan funds to finance Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant’s project for production of export-oriented rails, beams and other structural shapes.

In August, two types of the plant’s rails earned certificates of compliance with Europe’s TSI standard. These certificates are required for rail supplies to the EU member states.

In July, the plant cast its first oversize 50-tonne ingot. The new technology for production of bulk ingots from specialty steels enabled Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant to enter the market for oversize products which only a few facilities in the world can produce.

In September, the plant launched a welded beam workshop. This new facility enabled the plant to expand its construction product range and become Russia’s only producer of both hot-rolled and welded beams from the plant’s own steel.

2017

In March, Mechel signed a trilateral agreement on implementing ecological measures at Mechel’s Chelyabinsk-based facilities with the Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service (Rosprirodnadzor) and Chelyabinsk Region’s government.

In April, the plant marked the 75th anniversary of its first steel smelting.

In August, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant became the city’s pioneer in launching a voluntary independent ecological audit. Expert ecologists from Science Research Institute Atmosphere began examining Mechel’s Chelyabinsk-based facilities.

The plant’s universal rolling mill produced its two-millionth tonne of rolls.

In September, the plant earned a certificate for producing R65-type rails for railroads with traffic speed of up to 250 km/h. In November, these rails earned the plant a silver medal at the international Metal-Expo 2018 industrial fair.

In December, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant earned two important international certificates — one for conformity with the international occupational health and safety standard OHSAS 18 001: 2007 and another for compliance with the international standard of ecological management, ISO 14 001: 2015.

2018

In March, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant launched simultaneously two key aggregates — blast furnace #4 and converter #1. Investment totaled 4.5 billion rubles. The two large-scale projects are part of ecological measures outlined in the federal program Clean Air.

In August Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant completely halted waste water emissions into the Miass River from its Pershino outlet and significantly decreased emissions from the Kashtak outlet. Most of the plant’s waste water is now emitted into the Balandino storage pond.

In August, the plant launched biological rehabilitation of its ponds with chlorella microalgae. This experiment continued for four months. During this period, the microalgae were introduced into the pond 11 times.

In November, the plant signed an agreement for ecological cooperation with Chelyabinsk Region’s Governor Alexey Texler. The agreement outlines a complex of measures that would dramatically reduce the plant’s impact on water objects and improve industrial waste cleaning.

2020