Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia:

I. V. Butorina, Dr. Eng., Prof., e-mail: butorina_irina@mail.ru
S. G. Melnik, Dr. Eng., Prof.

Baltic State Technical University "Voenmeh" named after D. F. Ustinov, St. Petersburg, Russia:

M. V. Butorina, Dr. Eng., Prof., e-mail: marina_butorina@inbox.ru

Mariupol Metallurgical Plant "Azovstal" – an enterprise with a full metallurgical cycle, including blast-furnace, coke-chemical, lime-calcining, steel-smelting and rolling production, which produced sheet and shaped steel until February 2022 – was thoroughly destroyed during a military special operation, and the degree of this destruction is still not clear. The article presents the opinion of metallurgical scientists who know “Azovstal” well about three options for the restoration of the plant, proposed by representatives of the federal and republican governments. One of which involves its complete restoration, the second considers partial restoration with launch of rolling production, and the third proposes the complete dismantling of the remaining capacities of the enterprise, reclamation of its territory and creation of a technopark and a transport hub. Based on the analysis of the technological and environmental characteristics of the enterprise, it is shown that the complete restoration of the plant is highly costly and not profitable, since the demand for its products is low, and the main part of the workshops are morally and physically obsolete, since they are up to 90 years old. Capital modernization is required not only for the technological chain, but also for gas and water purification systems to avoid revival of the environmental problems of the city and the sea. It is more acceptable to launch rolling shops with imported bar, i.e. squares and slabs, if the check shows that they are not badly damaged. It will clean up the territory of the enterprise by two thirds and ten times reduce emissions into the environment. It is also possible to consider the option of in-house bar production by building an electric steelmaking shop operating on scrap or a product of direct iron production in shaft furnaces using hydrogen as a reducing agent. The best proposal is a complete closure of steel production at MMP “Azovstal” and creation of a technology park, a railway and water port hub on its territory, serving the entire south of Russia. Such a re-profiling of the enterprise will minimize the load on the city's environment and will make it possible to turn it into a zone of comfortable living for the population.

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