Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant

(full name, 50th Anniversary of the USSR Cherepovets Metallurgical Works), one of the largest enterprises of ferrous metallurgy in the USSR, working on a complete, closed metallurgical cycle. Located in the city of Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast, on the V. I. Lenin Volga-Baltic Waterway, the plant is part of the coal and metallurgical base of the Northwestern Region of the RSFSR; it was designed to use iron-ore concentrates from the Kola Peninsula deposits, coking coals of the Pechora Coal Basin, and ferrous scrap metal. Plant construction began in 1948, and the first pig iron was produced in 1955.

The plant specializes in the production of coke, pig iron, and sheet and standardized rolled products made of carbon and low-alloy steels, as well as curved sections. Approximately 10 percent of the output is exported to 45 countries. Construction of the second stage of the plant, designed to double plant capacity, was undertaken in 1974. The second stage includes a model 2000 widestrip sheet mill with a capacity of 6 million tons per year (its first stage was put into operation in 1976), oxygen furnaces with a capacity of 350 tons each, and a blast furnace with a usable capacity of 5,580 cu m. In 1966 the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant was awarded the Order of Lenin.