Cuban steel mill to produce for the country and export

HAVANA, Cuba, May 23 (ACN) The electric steel mill of the Jose Marti Steel Company (Antillana de Acero), recently opened after an investment process as a result of the cooperation between the Cuban and Russian governments, will pay production taxes to the island's entities and will contribute to exports.

The electric steel mill will produce carbon steel billets, used for rolling and obtaining rebar, and has the capacity to mass-produce 226,000 tons per year, Omar Ramon Reyes Ricardo, director of this basic business unit, told Granma newspaper.

Reinier Guillen Otero, general director of Antillana de Acero, explained that with the investment in the factory it was possible to repair the loading hall, the electric arc furnace and the ladle furnace, the continuous casting machine and the finished product hall, as well as all the electrical, hydraulic and automatic parts and the water treatment that the steel plant receives.

The gas treatment plant, also repaired, allows an environmentally friendly exchange, in terms of emissions control and non-contamination of the environment, he said.

The executive pointed out that the start-up of the electric steel plant is the first stage of the project for the modernization and recapitalization of the Steel Company, as a result of the exchange between Cuba and Russia, in technological and financial matters.

According to the general director of LLC Industrial Ingeniering, Vadim Nicolayevich, the volume of equipment and materials supplied to Antillana de Acero exceeds 9,000 tons.

More than 20 large Russian companies were involved in the process, said the Russian businessman, who emphasized that the equipment is modern, with high technology, to manufacture high quality equipment.

For his part, Eloy Alvarez Martinez, Cuban minister of industries, stated that, with the signing by both governments of the protocol that gives continuity to the credit, priority should be given to construction and assembly investments, and the shipment of supplies according to the program, in order to conclude the project with the start-up of the rolling mill in 2024.