Industrial complex history
Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol was founded in 1897, when the pipe shop „Nikopol“ of Mariupol mining and smelting society was constructed and gave its first output.
Construction of a plant in Mariupol was favoured by the advantageous geographical position, the proximity of raw materials and fuel resources, seaport presence, the availability of labour force of local peasants.
The Works was expanding and at the beginning of the 20th century it became the biggest metallurgical works in the South of Russia.
Fully restored after the First World War and the Civil War, in 1927 the Works started to develop as a diversified metallurgical and partially machine building enterprise.
The Works was gaining capacity. New subdivisions were built and put into operation: pipe rolling shop, plate shop, sheet-finishing shop and a number of auxillary shops.
In the middle of the 1930s a number of outstanding achievements in steelmaking were set.
The experience ofIlyich workers was used at other plants. Ilyich Iron and Steel Works became the center for study of qualified personnel for Magnitka, Azovstal, Zaporozhstal.
In 1941 the Works started to produce military products, including armour for tank T)34, the manufacturing of which was mastered just before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
When the front drew closer the most valuable equipment was dismantled and sent to the plants of the Urals and Siberia.
Blast furnace and openhearth furnace were putout of operation.
After the liberation of Mariupol at the end of 1944 the Works restored 70% of its capacity and resumed the production of armour steel.
In 1954–1969 the Works underwent its „second birth“. That was the period when blast furnaces № 1 and 2 were reconstructed, the third, fourth and fifth blast furnaces were put into operation as well as the open-hearth plant with the world’s biggest furnaces, the oxygen-converter plant, the break-down shop Slabbing mill 1500, the plants with continuous broad)strip mills 1700 with cold and hot rolling, the biggest in Europe sinter plant, a number of auxiliary shops.
In 1983 plate rolling plant 3000 made its first output — strips for pipes with large diameter.
At that time the plate rolling plant was one of the most advanced in Europe in terms of technical equipment.
During the last decade the Works experienced arapid growth: electric weld pipe shop and limekiln, as well as 2 continuous casters, a steel refining unit, an energy station at the oxygen converter plant were built and put into operation at the expense of the Works’.
The equipment of the most of producing plants was modernized or reconstructed.
November, 2000 became an important date in the Works’ history, Ukrainian Parliament adopted the law „The peculiarities of Ilyich Iron and Steel Works privatisation“, according to it personnel received the right to be the master of its Works.
Nowadays Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol is one of the biggest enterprises of Ukraine with a full metallurgical cycle, it produces a wide assortment of products and sells it successfully in many countries.
| February 13, 1897 | The pipe shop of the „Nikopol“ Works output its first products. |
| April, 1899 | The Works „Russkiy Providans“ was put into operation. It included two blast and two open-hearth furnaces, coke)oven batteries, rail and structural steel mill and section mill ets. |
| March, 1920 | „Nikopol“ and „Russkiy Providans“ was united in the „Mariupol Metallurgical and Metalprocessing Works“. |
| January, 1922 | The mills for large pipe welding were put into operation. |
| February 22, 1922 | The Works was named after V.I.Lenin (The Ilyich Works). |
| 1924–1939 | The absolute restoration and further development of the Works. Blast furnaces open-hearth furnaces, pipe, plate and sheet mills, a number of auxiliary shops were put into operation |
| June, 1941 | The Works began to manufacture military products. |
| 1944 - 1946 | Comissioning of pipe rolling, electric weld pipe and flask manufacturing shops. |
| 1953 | The absolute restoration of the Works and achievement of the pre)war production level. |
| 1954 – 1957 | The reconstructed blast furnaces №1 and 2 were put into operation. |
| 1958 | Construction and commissioning of the blast furnace №3. |
| December 25, 1960 | The first stage of the Sheet Rolling Plant 1700 was put into operation. |
| January 25, 1962 | Slabbing Mill 1150 was commissioned. |
| February to December, 1962 | 650-ton open-hearth furnaces №.1-3 and 900-ton open-hearth furnaces №4-6 were put into operation. |
| December 11, 1963 | The second stage of the Sheet Rolling Plant 1700 was put into operation. |
| December 28, 1963 | Cold Rolling Plant and Pipe Welding Mill 1020-2 were commissioned. |
| March to April, 1964 | Complex of Oxygen Converter Plant went on stream. |
| 1966–1970 | Sinter Plant consisting of 12 sintering machines was put into operation. |
| Semptember 30, 1967 | Commissioning of the continuous galvanizing unit №1. |
| October 23, 1970 | Moulding foundry, the last in the the complex of the maintenance shops, went on stream. |
| 1971 | Installation for laolle desulphurization of pig iron was put into operation. |
| April 29, 1977 | In the Cold Rolling Plant the second unit for continuous hot-dip galvanizing was commissioned. |
| December, 1983 | Commissioning of the Plate Mill 3000. |
| 1980–1986 | All-round modernization of all blast furnaces was fulfiled. |
| January, 1990 | The first of agricultural complex shops was created. |
| July, 1993 | Two continuous casting machines were put into operation in the Oxygen Converter Plant. |
| 1995 | Electric-Weld Pipe Shop was put into operation for manufacturing of pipes. |
| May, 1996 | The complex of the secondary metallurgy was put into operation. |
| 1999 | Chemikal metallurgikal plant was added to OSC „Ilyich Iron and steel Works of Mariupol“. |
| July, 2000 | Limekiln Shop was put into operation. |
| November 2, 2000 | The law of the Ukraine „ Abaut the Privatization Peculiarities of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol“ was adopted. |
| May, 2001 | Commissioning of the modern energy station at the Oxygen Converter Plant. |
| 2001–2002 | Capacities for the production of aluminum, secondary zinc, electrodes and powdered wire are put into action at chemical and metallurgical factory. |
| August - November 2003 | Reconstruction of blast furnace №3 with the increase in payload volume up to 2002 m3. |
