Severstal digital investments to raise 2021 production

Russian steelmaker and miner Severstal will increase finished steel production by carrying out new IT and digital projects in 2021, the company tells Kallanish.

Based on experience, an increase in productivity can be expected by more than 3% on-year to over 150,000 tonnes of additional rolled products at mill 2000 at its Cherepovets Steelworks (CherMK). This will also significantly accelerate the heating of slab in the sheet-rolling shop of the CherMK tube production.

“At the same time, we are still at the stage of developing a solution, so it is too early to talk about the exact effect,” the enterprise claims.

Total investment in more than 200 digital projects will amount to RUB 9.1 billion ($122.6 million) this year. The largest of them lie in the field of production, sales and logistics.

In 2020, significant progress was made in the areas of energy efficiency and production growth. Severstal implemented a solution based on artificial intelligence at continuous pickling unit No.3 of CherMK, which increased its productivity by more than 6.5% on-year.

In addition, a machine learning model for the automatic control of air compressors was successfully launched, which allows for more efficient use of electricity. Karelsky Okatysh is currently testing a model that will save energy at the roasting machines.

Severstal’s 2020 crude steel output and consolidated product sales each declined -4% on-year to 11.85 million tonnes and 11.2mt, respectively (see Kallanish passim). Revenue was down -15.8% on-year to $6.87 billion due to the Covid-19 pandemic impact.