Russia: Severstal begins hot testing of its new blast furnace

PAO Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has put its blast furnace No. 3 at the Cherepovets Steel Mill onto hot test mode. The new furnace has been named ‘Cherepovchanka’ and has the capacity to produce more than 3 mn t of pig iron per year. The unit is the second-largest at the Cherepovets steel mill in terms of production volumes of cast iron, after Severyanka, the largest blast furnace in Europe.