The year of 1999 proved to be the most rewarding as regards output of cast iron, steel, rolled metal, agglomerated ore and coke out of the last six years.
PROGRAM FOR ACTION
The year of 1999 proved to be the most rewarding as regards output of cast iron, steel, rolled metal, agglomerated ore and coke out of the last six years.
Despite considerable irregularities in supplies of power, iron ore and scrap metal to metallurgical mills, the 1999 production made up 80-90% of the level of 1993 and 106-112% of the 1998 level. Perhaps, we may assume that passing of a number of laws in the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) has contributed a lot to this achievement. Such laws embraced:
Law "On scrap metal" (dated May 1999);
Law "On conducting economic experiment at the enterprises of mining and smelting complex of Ukraine" (dated July 1999);
Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada "On measures to overcome the crisis in mining and smelting complex of Ukraine" (October 1998).
The Cabinet of Ministers has also adopted a number of by-laws to restructure accounts payable of selected mining companies and metallurgical mills to the state budget and to special-purpose state funds. Besides, the Cabinet has made a decision to render financial assistance to enterprises with subsequent payback of the main amount. These measures, as well as some others, improved the solvency of mining companies and iron & steel mills in 1999.
With the aim of further stabilization of metal-making activities, the State Committee for Industrial Policy of Ukraine, together with metallurgical enterprises, has generated a program named "Recovery of enterprises’ economics in 2000".
The new program envisages specific steps to increase production efficiency and earn additional revenues via improvement of production management, upgrade and enhancement of technical performance of main units and equipment, improvement of technologies employed, saving of fuel and power resources, reduction in production costs, improvement of marketing activities and tightening of pricing policies.
It is stipulated to increase utilization of iron-based tailings and converter slag in order to bring down agglomerate production costs in the agglomerate-making divisions of Azovstal, Alchevsk, Dzerzhinsky and Yenakievo Iron and Steel Works.
Another project is enhancement of furnace performance and reduction in coke consumption via thorough repair of blast furnaces at Makeyevka, Azovstal, Yenakievo and Kramatorsk Iron and Steel Works and at Constantinovka Metallurgic Works, via improvement of selected structural furnace components and enhancement of smelting technologies. These measures will be greatly facilitated by repair and phasing in of blast furnace stoves at Azovstal, Ilyich, Makeyevka, Alchevsk, Krivorozhstal, Zaporozhstal, Petrovsky and Kramatorsk Iron and Steel Works, as well as at Constantinovka Metallurgic Works.
A whole range of measures aimed at reducing consumption of fuel and detachable wearable equipment is scheduled for execution at steel-smelting shops of Krivorozhstal, Ilyich, Azovstal, Makeyevka, Dzerzhinsky, Yenakievo, Donetsk, DneproSpetsStal and Kramatorsk Iron & Steel Works.
As regards rolling production of selected enterprises, it is planned to take steps to introduce power-saving technologies, improve the design of stoves and heaters, lower metal consumption and enhance quality of rolling.
Execution of the program is estimated to yield more than UAH 250,000,000 per year. It is especially important that implementation of this program needs no external investments being solely financed at the expense of enterprises themselves.
Today, this is a program for action. Materialization of this plan will contribute to improvement of companies’ financial health and to replenishment of their current assets, which will inevitably bring in additional revenues to the state budget.
the Metal