Small-size manufacturing and supplies of metal products
METALLOSERVICE TO BE A CATALYST FOR DOMESTIC MARKET
METALLOSERVICE TO BE A CATALYST FOR DOMESTIC MARKET
Small-size manufacturing and supplies of metal products
In terms of physical quantity produced, Ukraine ranks the
6th among world metal manufacturers. The country is capable of making over 3,000 types of
standard shapes, thousands of types of tubes, metalware, ropes, seamless rolled railway
wheels, bandages, axes, rail binders, grinding blocks, and other metal products. Domestic
rolling mills produce various shapes, tin, rolled sheets and plates, 0.4-200 mm thick, as
well as seamless and welded tubes. For the needs of machine-building, Ukrainian
metal-making mills manufacture structural and special-purpose shapes. Ukrainian
metallurgic plants smelt more than 1,000 varieties of high-carbon, low-alloyed, and
alloyed steel and alloys according to domestic and foreign standards.
At the same time, the National Program for Development of
Ukrainian Metallurgy until the year 2010 revealed a number of negative tendencies in
production of rolled products made of ferrous metals. In particular, Ukrainian metallurgy
indicated a curtailment of assortment and output of such profitable and expensive articles
as construction and high-alloyed rolled steel, special-purpose shapes, bound shapes,
metalware, conversion articles, tubes, etc. Along with that, production and export of
cheap semis and billets increased. These now account for some 50% of the total exports.
According to the data with the State Statistics Committee,
domestic consumption of Ukraine-made end rolled metal products came to only 4.5 mln. tons
out of the total of 19 mln. tons produced in 1999, as compared to 26 mln. tons consumed in
1990.
In 1999, machine building indicated an eightfold reduction
in consumption of rolled products against the 1990’ figure to only 1 mln. tons. This was
caused by a plunge in production of such metal-consuming items as cars, trucks, and
agricultural machinery (10 times down), tractors (14 times down), rail cars (6 times
down), bicycles (20 times down), and electric machinery (6 times down). Along with this,
the construction industry consumed only 0.4 mln. tons, which is a ninefold drop against
the 1990’ figure.
Along with the indicated tendencies, the domestic market
indicated increased demand for small-size production and small-batch supplies of rolled
metal.
According to the estimates by the Ukrainian Scientific
Research Institute of Metallurgy, many consumers order over 3,000 rolled metal articles in
small batches of 1 to 200 tons, which large-size metallurgical mills cannot supply. The
annual amount of the small-quantity orders adds up to some 600 thousand tons. The
estimates indicate that an economically profitable order is to exceed 250-300 tons for
plants that make small-size articles, 500-800 tons for those that make medium-size
articles, 2,000 tons mills that produce large-size and railway articles, and 100-1,000
tons for steel smelters.
Manufacturing of small-quantity batches of rolled shapes
results in additional time expenditures. This especially concerns rolling of new, complex
shapes, which require several test rolling stages. Taking into account the average time
expenditures needed to test-roll a new shape (10-15 hours) and the average output capacity
of an up-to-date rolling equipment (100-200 tons per hour), in order to launch rolling a
new shape, the losses come to 1,000-2,000 tons of steel.
Lack of the necessary economical shapes for manufacturing
of gears and components for machine-building forces the manufacturers to use high energy-
and material-consuming metal-processing technologies, which drive the rate of chipped
metal waste up to 80%.
The National Program for Development of Ukrainian
Metallurgy until the year 2010 defined four major directions aimed at optimization of
small-size production and small-batch supplies of metal products, as follows:
1. The main solution to the problem is putting into
operation of mini-mills or workshops of the annual production capacity of 80,000 to
300,000 tons. As a rule, such mills include electric steel-smelting furnaces and rolling
equipment, and should be located in regions with developed machine-building. In the recent
years, over 500 such mini-mills were constructed in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan and some
other countries worldwide. In Ukraine, construction of similar mini-mills is offered by
Konstantinovka Rolling Mill, Donetsk Rolling Mill, and Kramatorsk Metal Works, although no
such mills have been launched yet.
2. Metallurgical mills should reasonably specialize and
cooperate with each other. Those that possess small-size production capacities should
manufacture small-batch supplies from their own billets, acquired billets or billets
supplied through tolling schemes. It would be convenient to concentrate such production at
Kramatorsk, Donetsk, Enakievo Metal Works, and DneproSpetsStal. These are equipped with a
number of rolling mills capable of producing the needed small-quantity assortment of
rolled products. At the same time, Ukrainian producers are reluctant to establish such
cooperation, which, along with the existing taxation system, poses certain obstacles for
introduction of such a scheme.
3. The system of utilization of regional warehouses and
storehouses should be improved., These can be used to collect and direct orders and
provide additional servicing (related to further cutting and finishing works).
4. The fourth direction is production of small batches of
metal products at the rolling capacities of scientific research institutes and design and
construction offices.
Currently, such institutes as the Ukrainian Scientific
Research Institute of Metallurgy, Scientific Research Institute of Refractory Materials
(the city of Kharkov), the Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy (the city of Dnepropetrovsk),
the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Special Steels (the city of Zaporozhye),
Dneprovskiy Technical University (Dneprodzerzhinsk) and the Tube Institute (the city of
Dnepropettrovsk) are equipped with rolling, tube-rolling, shaping mills, drawbenches, and
units for production of powdered and refractory materials. Today, they produce more than
100 types of hot-rolled sections, calibrated high-precision shapes, and various tube
types.
In particular, the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute
of Metallurgy is equipped with a complex of rolling mills and shaping units. This
equipment is capable of producing small-quantity batches of rolled shapes made of round or
square billets, 20-140 mm in diameter, rolled sheets and plates, 0.55-5 mm thick and
50-1,250 mm wide. The minimal order is 0.5 tons, whereas the maximal order is 300 tons per
year.
Suggested dimensions of roll-formed shapes are 30-200 mm in
width, 4-40 mm in thickness, 0.9-60 kg/m in weight, and 1-3 m in length.
Suggested dimensions of bound shapes are 30-5,000 mm in
width, 10-100 mm in height, 0.2-23.5 kg/m in weight, and 1-11.5 m in length.
The minimal order is not to be less than 8 tons per year
whereas the maximal order is not to exceed 500 tons per year.
Currently, the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of
Metallurgy produces shapes for turbine blades (ordered by TurboAtom Association), complex
sections for Ukraine-made grain harvesters and elastic shapes for spacecraft.
The Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy is equipped with
drawbenches that produce high-precision shapes. The Scientific Research Institute of
Refractory Materials is engaged in production of small-quantity batches of mullit-corundum
paste, refractory concrete, and cement with high alumina content for the needs of
machine-building Frunze Scientific and Production Association (the city of Sumy),
Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, Motor-Sich (the city of Zaporozhye), and
KievTractoroDetal.
Generally speaking, scientific research institutes are
capable of producing over 300 types of rolled products and tubes (up to 5 thousand tons
per year), and thus cover the needs of domestic consumers, substitute Ukrainian imports
and resolve the issue of small-size production and small-batch supplies of metal products.