November 8, 2013: The last production of steel using open-hearth furnaces at the TAGMET plant (part of the TMK Group) was made on November 6, 2013. The Taganrog-based iron factory is decommissioning the old furnaces within the framework of a large-scale investment program of TMK-Group in order to reduce the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere and technically reequip the production.
Vice-governor Sergey Gorban', regional minister of industry and energy Alexander Grebenshikov, Mayor of Taganrog Vladimir Prasolov and other guests participated in the solemn ceremony. "Today is a day both happy and sad in the factory's history. It's a happy day because we start a new era in the history of this company, and it's a sad one for we say good-bye to the past of several generations of our workers. The open-hearth shop has been the heart of the factory. It has never stopped for 115 years except for a period during WWII. The open-hearth shop gave 35 millions tons of steel, but today TAGMET enters the new era of electrometallurgy, which is a more efficient and environmentally friendly" told Mr. Shiryaev, TMK-Group's General Director.
Press release courtesy of Tagmet.Ru