[ferro-alloys.com]Two Russian steel companies: AEMZ, Abinsk Electric Steel Works and NPZ, Novorossiisk Rolling Plant, are set to increase their wire rod output with two new H3 (High-productivity, High-quality and High-efficiency) rolling mills, a spokesman for Italian engineering company Danieli told S&P Global Platts on Tuesday.

The two H3 rolling mills will be installed and put into operation in Russia during 2020.

AEMZ awarded Danieli the contract for a new 600,000 mt a year H3 wirerod line to be installed at Abinsk, in the Krasnodar region, to produce wire rod coils (5.5-16-millimeter diameter smooth rounds; 6- 12-mm diameter quenched and micro-alloyed rebar) for construction purposes and welding wire.

The new rod rolling mill will be the company's second rod rolling mill. AEMZ has an electric arc furnace hat produces 1.5 million/year of billets of which 900,000 mt are re-rolled in its rebar rolling mill and 600,000 mt at its rod rolling mill. The new rod line will be feed with extra billets the company will buy on the open market while it is waiting to increase the output of its own EAF.

NPZ awarded Danieli for a new 500,000 mt/year H3 wirerod mill to be installed at Novorossiisk, Krasnodar region, to roll 150x150 billets into 5.5-16-mm-diameter wirerod and deformed wirerod in coils weighing up to 2.1 mt. NPZ has an EAF with the capacity to produce 500,000 mt/year of billet but no rolling mill line.

Neither of the Russian companies could be reached for comment.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]