Uzbek iron and steel works Joint Stock Manufacturing Amalgamation (Uzmetcombinat) was established in 1994 through a merger of the Uzbek metallurgy plant, the Shirin machine building plant (which produces spare parts for steel manufacturing equipment) and the self-financing board Vtorchermet, which has scrap collection network across Uzbekistan.
The steelworks was originally established in 1942 with equipment evacuated from Ukraine. It is located in Bekabad, 150km south of the capital city of Tashkent, has good railway and road links and is adjacent to the border with Tajikistan. Significantly, Uzmetcombinat has railway access to Northern Afghanistan where major reconstruction programmes sponsored by the international community are commencing.
Uzmetcombinat specialises in the production of steel long rolled products (reinforcing bar, round and square sections, angles etc) and grinding steel balls for ball mills.
Historically, the company has produced other products: welded tubes, enamel plate, steel netting, nuts and screws, nails, glass containers and sodium soluble silicate etc. In 2001, the production of such products was negligible.
Today, the company is 73% owned by the Uzbekistan Government with the remaining shares being held by employees, the Almalyk and Navoi mining metallurgical complexes and others.
The main production facilities consist of three l00t capacity electric arc furnaces installed in 1978, which can produce 750 kt/y. They are connected to three continuous casting machines that feed the 300mm light section rolling mill No2 (capacity l Mt/y). This rolling mill is capable of producing billets for tubes and rerolling, reinforcing bars (10-36 mm), round bars, light angles, light tees and light channels utilizing automated processes with standard technology. In addition to the electric arc furnaces, there is an open hearth furnace dating from 1944 with continuous casting process.
The company is in the process of commissioning a 500 kt/y electric arc furnace, which is due to come on stream in May 2002 and will replace two of the existing three electric arc furnaces. In 1999 a furnace-ladle unit was put into operation. This year the company plans to commence the building of a wire mill with an output of 150 kt/y of wire rod.
Rolling Mill Nol includes a 300 mm light section rolling mill with an annual capacity of 180 kt/y and three modern mills for production of grinding balls with diameters range from 50 to 120 mm (more than 120 kt/y) for grinding mineral and non-ferrous ores.
The annual output of finished rolled products for the last two years was more than 400 kt, of which about 70% were sections and 30% grinding balls.
Scrap for charging the furnaces is supplied entirely within Uzbekistan at prices well below Western costs. Electricity, natural gas and water are supplied at low prices from local enterprises. Most raw materials and consumables are supplied domestically, except ferro-alloys, refractories, quartz and EAF electrodes, which are imported mainly from Russia and Ukraine. Russia, Austria, and Germany are the main suppliers of equipment.
Additionally, APO Uzmetcombinat produced fasteners, construction nails, ripple netting, soluble sodium silicate, and argon gas. There are two separate shops for production of enamelled household utensils (saucepans, kettles, flying-pans, plates, bowls, tanks, containers, tins, pails, chutes, jugs, basins and others) and welding pipes with diameters from 32 mm to 76 mm.
Approximately 75% of output is consumed in the domestic market. Uzmetcombinat covers all local demand for grinding balls and sold about 98% of this product ouput to two large Uzbekistan mining metallurgical com-1 plexes, Almalyk Mining and Navoi Mining, both shareholders and both wishing to increase orders.
In 2001 more than l00 kt of long rolled products were exported mainly to countries in the region: Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Exports of grinding balls are negligible as domestic demand is sufficient to absorb the output.
Finished steel exports of long products from Uzbekistan in 2000-01 totalled around 105-1l0kt. Hot rolled reinforcing bar for reinforcing concrete represented 94.2kt of this figure. Iran and Afghanistan accounted more than 50% of the total amount of steel exports.