Mechel OAO announced commissioning of the Shaft Furnace No 8 after repair at its Southern Urals Nickel Plant subsidiary.

Shaft Furnace No 8 has been restarted at Mechel’s Southern Urals Nickel Plant subsidiary on May 26th 2009. Thus, six shaft furnaces currently operate at the plant. The restart of the Furnace No 8 resulted in the 15% increase in utilization of the plant’s capacity. Considering total output of the six shaft furnaces, Southern Urals Nickel Plant reached the level of 80% of average monthly pre-crises output.

In December 2008, the plant decreased its output due to a lower demand for its products. Therefore, all its furnaces were put into stand-by mode except two, which continued producing alloy. The time passed was used for maintenance works, which were conducted, substantially, by the plant’s own personnel. Specifically, the gas ducts of Shaft Furnaces No. 1 to 2 and No 3 to 4 were repaired, which enabled significant reduction of dust and gas emission rate.

As the result of the maintenance work completion and increase in demand for the plant’s products, four shaft furnaces have been successively restarted from March 2009.

Taking into account all operating furnaces’ total output during the first four months of 2009 YoY the plant’s productivity reached 20% increase in tons per square meter per 24 hours.