It is reported that Sheffield Forgemasters has secured a substantial contract win worth over EUR 3 million with MMK one of the largest steel companies in Russia.

The deal is to provide 116 work rolls weighing five tonnes each and two back up rolls weighing forty tonnes each, throughout 2011 to MMK which is located in the city of Magnitogorsk a industrial and mining city located by the Ural River.

Forgemasters won the contract after MMK decided to expand its capacity and acquired a new cold rolling mill. The rolls will be used in the new wide strip cold rolling mill to roll steel sheets for domestic use including car manufacturing and white goods such as fridges and washing machines.

Mr Ken Brooks senior sales manager at Forgemasters said “We have been working closely with MMK for a number of years now and our relationship has always been a strong one. He said that Russia has a huge domestic demand for steel and Forgemasters is a leading supplier of forged steel rolls necessary for the manufacture of steel sheets.”

He added that “This new contract is an exciting development in the continuation of our relationship with MMK and helps secure our place as the country’s leading steel roll provider.”

Creating the rolls requires specialist skills at Forgemasters with processes ranging from forging each ingot to heat treatment which takes the rolls from +940 degrees to -40 degrees and creates highly specific hardness properties. They are machine finished to within 0.05 mm on computer controlled machine tools.