Tashkent, Uzbekistan, April 9
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
The Uzbek Metallurgical Plant (Uzmetkombinat), which accounts for 90 percent of ferrous metallurgy output in the country, increased steel production by 0.2 percent up to 177,000 tons in January-March 2014 compared to the same period of 2013, the plant said on April 9.
The finished steel output also increased by 0.2 percent up to 170,200 tons.
Uzmetkombinat is the only ironworks in Central Asia, working with scrap metal.
The plant was put into operation in 1956. Previously, it recycled scrap metal obtained from all republics of Central Asia.
The plant can produce 790,000 tons of steel and 760,000 tons of rolled metal.
Uzmetkombinat increased steel production by 1.3 percent up to 746,200 tons, including the production of finished steel - by 1.1 percent to 718,000 tons in 2013 compared to 2012.
Currently, Uzmetkombinat is implementing the production development and modernization program worth $ 134.7 million for the period until 2016. The modernization program is being funded through the company's own funds.
The program implementation is expected to increase the plant's design capacity for steel production by 13.3 percent - up to 850,000 tons, processed scrap metal - almost 1.8 times to 670,000 tons, as well as reduce energy costs by 20 percent by 2016.
The official exchange rate is 2.267.74 soums/$ 1 on April 9.