22 August 2014
Employees of Metinvest Group’s Avdiivka Coke managed to connect the enterprise to the natural gas pipeline. This will allow for ensuring high and stable temperatures inside the plant’s coking batteries and preserve the plant’s core equipment.
On August 20, plant workers connected one of eight coke oven batteries to the gas pipeline. That same day, the temperature reached normal levels – 1050˚C. Now the main task is to increase the temperature in the other seven coking batteries. They all have already been connected to the natural gas main.
“Our plant produces one third of coke in Ukraine and is the major employer in Avdiivka. Thus, no matter how difficult it is, we do not have the moral right to give up,” said Musa Magomedov, general director of Avdiivka Coke. “Today artillery shelling is continuing in close proximity to the enterprise and workers have to periodically go down into the bomb shelters. In order to give a chance to the plant and the coke oven batteries, we had to shut down and disconnect all chemical facilities. We cannot say that Avdiivka Coke is safe now. Nevertheless, we now have hope that production capacity will be restored at the enterprise. This hope will turn into confidence when electricity supplies are connected.”
- For editors:
Avdiivka Coke Plant is Europe’s largest high-tech coking plant. The plant makes 31 types of products. It has customers in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Georgia, Belgium, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Egypt. Its key products are blast furnace coke, electrode pitch coke, and crude benzene. Avdiivka Coke makes 23% of Ukraine’s bulk coke. The plant produced 3.7 million tons of bulk coke (6% moisture content) in 2012. The plant runs eight coke oven batteries, with a designed capacity of 6.87 million tons of bulk coke per year. The enterprise is self-sufficient in terms of energy resources, including process steam, heating and electricity. Avdiivka Coke produces more than 50% of blast furnace coke with an advanced and environmentally friendly dry quenching process. Avdiivka Coke received a certificate for actively participating in the implementation of environmental policy at the regional level at the “Ecology in an Industrial Region” second international environmental forum by the National Environmental Protection Administration in Donetsk Oblast in 2012. Avdiivka Coke, together with the Shakhtar Football Club opened a football school for children in Avdiivka; the school currently has 60 students.
Metinvest Group is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies that manages every link of the value chain, from mining and processing iron ore and coal to making and selling semi-finished and finished steel products. It has steel and mining production facilities in Ukraine, Europe and the US, as well as a sales network covering all key global markets. Its strategic vision to become the leading vertically integrated steel producer in Europe, delivering sustainable growth and profitability resilient to business cycles and providing investors with returns above industry benchmarks. The Group reported revenue of USD 12.8 billion and an EBITDA margin of 18% in 2013. The major shareholders of Metinvest B.V. (the holding company for Metinvest Group) are SCM Group (71.25%) and Smart-Holding (23.75%), which partner in the Group’s management. Metinvest Holding, LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.