1st Feb 2008 13:16
OAO Severstal01 February 2008 Severstal to resume operations at Cherepovets Blast Furnace within a few days. OAO Severstal announced today that operations at Blast Furnace No. 5 at itsCherepovets steel plant will resume as early as this weekend, following a fireyesterday which resulted in the death of a Severstal employee and injury to twoothers. Severstal Cherepovets Steel Mill Director-General Anatoly Kruchinin said: "Theprocedures we have put in place will serve to minimise the impact of theincident on production". The Commission set up to investigate the incident is at this stage consideringtwo possible causes of the incident: a partial failure of refractories resultingin local overheating of the armour of the air conduit and its subsequentrupture, and the failure of a weld on the Cowper stove. The Blast Furnace should resume operations using three Cowper stoves in aprocess ensuring standard productive capacity as early as Saturday, whilerepairs of the failed stove will be carried out at the same time. Severstal is offering every possible assistance to the family of the dead man,61-year old Shift Supervisor Leonid Glagolev. The company's thoughts and prayersare with his family and friends. The injured workers were taken to hospital. One remains there, in a stablecondition. The other has been discharged. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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