In 2009 the Works fulfilled the production plan on all the types of products: 2 731.9 thousand tons of pig iron; 3 276.9 thousand tons of steel and 2 749.0 thousand tons of rolled products were produced. In comparison with 2008 the production indices reduced at an average of 16%.
The sales of rolled products in the domestic market amounted to 37.7% of the total amount of the shipped products. The main share of rolled products, i.e. 62.3%, was exported by the Works. Products were shipped to 65 countries of the world. During the accounting year realization of commercial products amounted to 8 389.8 million UAH; net loss totaled to 290.5 million UAH.
The economic conditions in 2009 were quite challenging for Zaporizhstal JSC and totally for the branch of industry. Zaporizhstal worked in the conditions of demand slowdown for steel products which stipulated a significant drop of metal products prices and reduction of production volumes. Whereas the prices of the main types of raw material, fuel and power resources did not reduce adequately to the drop of rolled products prices. Such a tendency remained throughout the whole year of 2009. This considerably influenced the reduction of the Works’ financial results.
In the difficult economic situation the Works’ employees took all possible measures to improve the performance of Zaporizhstal JSC. First of all, a number of measures were realized to reduce production cost of the products. A serious job was also carried out at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to overcome the crisis developments in the economy and price restraint of natural monopoly products. This permitted Zaporizhstal to preserve the work places and a decent level of salary for the workers. The number of workers at Zaporizhstal in 2009 amounted to 19 401 persons, the monthly average salary of 1 Zaporizhstal worker totaled to 3000 UAH. The salary is paid in due time.
In 2009, even in the particularly difficult economical situation for metallurgists of Ukraine, Zaporizhstal JSC has preserved the whole spectrum of social guarantees and continues to pay big attention to social policy, material reward and renders financial support to the workers of the plant. 165.8 million UAH was spent on these tasks. Last year the Works fully and in due time settled payments into the budget and non-budgetary funds. This helped to keep social stability and first of all in Zaporozhye. Today all the social, cultural and sports facilities, which are on the balance sheet of Zaporizhstal, continue to function.
In 2009, as in the previous years, the Works carried out methodical work on improvement of the technological process and technical re-equipment of the basic funds to improve the quality and widen the range of products. Particular attention is paid to the introduction of the power-saving technologies. The most large-scale and effective measures are the following:
In sintering and blast furnace production
Construction of the PCI unit. This measure will allow to reduce the consumption of dry skip coke by 20-25% and also to completely exclude the usage of expensive natural gas in the iron production process, allowing to reduce all-in-all the consumption of natural gas at the Works by 40-45%. The PCI unit is planned to be put into operation in 2010. Reconstructive maintenance of blast furnace No.4 is being carried out.
In steelmaking production
To improve the heating-up of the furnace proper and reduction of consumption of natural gas the open-hearth furnaces are equipped with front jet-niche burners. This has allowed to reduce, as compared to 2008, the consumption rate of equivalent fuel for making steel from 84.1 kg/t up to 78.4 kg/t in the conditions of natural gas pressure reduction without changing the duration of periods and total heat time.
In rolling production
In the hot strip mill shop
Further mastering of the rolling technology with the usage of the commissioned intermediate coiling device ‘coil-box’ in the line of the continuous hot strip rolling mill “1680” was carried out. In 2009 practically 100% of double-weight coils were rolled with the usage of the intermediate coiling device ‘coil-box’.
In cold-rolling shop No.1
Jobs were carried out on erection of equipment of the 12th unit of heat-treatment bell-type furnaces, designed by the institute “UkrNIIelectroterm”. This will help to increase the productivity of the heat-treatment furnaces twofold, reduce the annual consumption of natural gas, electricity, protection gas and industrial waters.
520.8 million UAH has been spent in 2009 on the fulfillment of the current and major repairs of the equipment, reconstruction, modernization and capital construction.