BULGARIA'S biggest metal works, Kremikovtzi near Sofia, will invest 240 million euro to buy Austrian technology that will make the company more competitive.
The new method will reduce emissions of dangerous gases from cast iron production, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Lydia Shuleva said this week. Austrian company Voest Alpine Industrie Anlagenbau will do the installation. The name of the technology that it uses is Corex.
Part of the funds for the ecological investment will come from the sale of carbon dioxide emissions. A potential buyer has already been found, Kremikovtzi executive director Valentin Zahariev said. The new Corex installation will begin operating by 2009 and will produce 1.5 million tons of liquid iron annually. Vice-president of Voest Alpine's engineering branch Karl Gruber said that Corex technology has already been implemented in South Korea, South Africa and India. The total output of installations set up the Austrian company amount to 15 million tons of cast iron. Voest will also negotiate a credit line for the modernisation of Kremikovtzi. The contract between Kremikovtzi and Voest is expected to be signed within seven or eight months.
Corex is a coal-based smelting process for prodution of hot metal or cats iron. It turns coal into gas in a smelting reactor. The coal turned into gas is then put into a furnace, where oxygen is removed from iron ore. The extracted iron is then put into the smelting reactor, according to Bulgarian news agency BTA.
Apart from the favourable ecological prospects, the new Corex technology is expected to make about 1500 workers redundant. It will also make possible the removal of two old furnaces, which produce a lot of dangerous gas emissions, Zahariev told the media. But the during the process of installation 150 new people will be employed. The innovation will cut production costs by at least 25 per cent. The Corex unit is designed for a capacity of up to 1.4 million ton of hot metal a year.
Kremikovtzi was privatised in 1999 by Daru Metals, which later was renamed to Finmetals Holding. It bought 71 per cent in the state-owned company for a symbolic price of $1 and the promise to cover the plant's $420 million liabilities. According to the company's investment programme, a total of $300 million are to be injected in the production by 2005. In mid-November Kremikovtzi signed a $1.2 billion deal to sell 2.4 million tons of steel to Italian industrial group Marcegaglia over the next five years.
- Business Staff
The new method will reduce emissions of dangerous gases from cast iron production, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Lydia Shuleva said this week. Austrian company Voest Alpine Industrie Anlagenbau will do the installation. The name of the technology that it uses is Corex.
Part of the funds for the ecological investment will come from the sale of carbon dioxide emissions. A potential buyer has already been found, Kremikovtzi executive director Valentin Zahariev said. The new Corex installation will begin operating by 2009 and will produce 1.5 million tons of liquid iron annually. Vice-president of Voest Alpine's engineering branch Karl Gruber said that Corex technology has already been implemented in South Korea, South Africa and India. The total output of installations set up the Austrian company amount to 15 million tons of cast iron. Voest will also negotiate a credit line for the modernisation of Kremikovtzi. The contract between Kremikovtzi and Voest is expected to be signed within seven or eight months.
Corex is a coal-based smelting process for prodution of hot metal or cats iron. It turns coal into gas in a smelting reactor. The coal turned into gas is then put into a furnace, where oxygen is removed from iron ore. The extracted iron is then put into the smelting reactor, according to Bulgarian news agency BTA.
Apart from the favourable ecological prospects, the new Corex technology is expected to make about 1500 workers redundant. It will also make possible the removal of two old furnaces, which produce a lot of dangerous gas emissions, Zahariev told the media. But the during the process of installation 150 new people will be employed. The innovation will cut production costs by at least 25 per cent. The Corex unit is designed for a capacity of up to 1.4 million ton of hot metal a year.
Kremikovtzi was privatised in 1999 by Daru Metals, which later was renamed to Finmetals Holding. It bought 71 per cent in the state-owned company for a symbolic price of $1 and the promise to cover the plant's $420 million liabilities. According to the company's investment programme, a total of $300 million are to be injected in the production by 2005. In mid-November Kremikovtzi signed a $1.2 billion deal to sell 2.4 million tons of steel to Italian industrial group Marcegaglia over the next five years.
- Business Staff
