In the photo: Andrey Kukhno, director of the Ecolant company, with an award
Ecolant won the regional competition Investment Project of the Year 2020. The company's project to build the first large full-cycle electric steel-smelting complex in Europe using modern environmentally friendly technologies in the production of steel was recognized as the best investment initiative of 2020 in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
The total cost of the project, which was launched in September last year, is about 150 billion rubles. The volume of investments at the end of November 2021 amounted to about 14 billion rubles. Funding was directed to the purchase of basic technological equipment for future production and infrastructure, as well as design and survey work. In addition, a noise barrier, the largest in the region, is being erected next to the future production facility in order to reduce the noise load on residents during the upcoming construction and further operation of the complex.
Currently, preparatory work is underway, the project documentation is undergoing the necessary examinations. The launch of the complex is scheduled for 2025.
Ecolant will provide high-quality steel for the production of high value-added products for the fuel and energy complex, the transport sector and mechanical engineering. In particular, steel billets and slabs of the future complex will be used in the production of large-diameter pipes for main pipelines, wide sheets for shipbuilding, seamless pipes for oil production, railway wheels and long products. The steel produced will have the lowest carbon intensity compared to traditional steel in Russia and Europe, thus Ecolant's products can be equated with green. In addition to the electrometallurgical complex itself, the project includes the creation of related infrastructure.
Due to the scale of the electrometallurgical complex and the participation of a large number of contractors and equipment suppliers, the Ecolant project will have a high social and economic effect for the Nizhny Novgorod region. Its successful implementation will add about 5% to the gross domestic product of the Nizhny Novgorod region (these funds will be used for road construction, improvement, repair of schools and hospitals) and will provide more than 700 new jobs.
Announcing the winner in the Investment Initiative of the Year nomination, Denis Ismagilov, Minister of Economic Development and Investments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, thanked all the nominees for their contribution to the development of the region's economy.
“I thank my colleagues for the fact that despite the difficult pandemic year and the associated restrictions, they launched large-scale projects that in the medium and long term will have a positive impact and a significant effect on the development of the region as a whole,” Denis Ismagilov added.
“It is a great honor and great responsibility for us to be the winner in this nomination. Thank you for such a high assessment of our project. Ecolant is one of the large-scale metallurgy projects in modern Russia over the past 10 years, with its construction we, without exaggeration, begin the era of a new green metallurgy. Our complex will meet not only the current, but also future requirements of Russia and the European Union in the field of ecology and energy efficiency. The fact that we are implementing this project in the Nizhny Novgorod region is natural. A broad system of investor support has been formed here and a constructive and effective dialogue with business has been built. We thank you for this, we appreciate it very much and are ready for further cooperation,” Andrey Kukhno, director of the Ecolant company, commented in his response.
"Ekolant" is a metallurgical complex without coke-chemical and blast-furnace-converter stages. For the first time in Russia, a technology for the production of steel, round billets and high-quality slabs with continuous supply of hot reduced pellets to an electric arc furnace will be presented at one production site. The uniqueness of the complex lies in the fact that hot metallized pellets immediately enter the arc furnace, and the resulting steel goes to out-of-furnace processing and casting. This will be the first such plant in Europe. The design capacity of the future complex will be 1.8 million tons of liquid steel per year.
The Ecolanta technology will not emit emissions associated with the production of coke, sinter and pig iron. This will make it possible to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur oxide into the atmosphere by up to three times in comparison with the traditional blast-furnace-converter production technology.
Financing for the project was provided by a syndicate of three Russian banks - VEB. RF, Sberbank and Otkritie Bank as part of VEB.RF's Project Finance Factory.