As part of an upgrade program, Russian steelmaker OAO Metalloinvest invested 230 million rubles into boosting capacity at a Ural Steel JSC facility by 50% to 1.8 million tonnes per annum.

Ural Steel is a subsidiary of Metalloinvest.

The company said in a Feb. 26 release that it enhanced a vacuum degasser unit, which allowed for higher production volumes of treated steel, which increased the output of steel products. The upgrade aims to modernize a casting machine to produce billets for railway wheels and square billets for railway production.

Overall in 2017, Metalloinvest produced 40.3 million tonnes of iron, down 1% on the previous year due to a change in the ore mixture and maintenance works. Crude steel output increased 2% to 4.8 million tonnes.

As of Feb. 26, US$1 was equivalent to 55.90 Russian rubles.