Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk, a joint venture between the Russian Steel division of Severstal and Mitsui was presented to customers. This is the first steel service centre construction project in Russia with investment from a Japanese commercial company holding shares in the project.
The joint venture was established in April 2010 to develop further Severstal’s automotive steel sheet to stamped auto part-production chain. Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk provides a full range of services for steel sheet slitting and cutting-to-length, blanking for subsequent stamping, and manufacturing welded blanks. The service centre is equipped with a line producing welded blanks for the automotive industry, the first line of its type in Russia and other CIS countries. With the launch of this line, the company became the first Russian steelmaker to enter the market for Ultralight Steel Auto Bodies. The facility has the capacity to weld 0.5mm–3mm thick blanks.
The centre’s facilities include a notching line designed to process a wide range of steels including high strength grades. The line’s press has been built to manufacture a range of blanks, from simple to shaped. The blanking press is capable of cutting blanks from rolled sheet with a thickness of between 0.5mm and 3.2mm.
Currently, Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk produces around 5,000t per month. Once the facilities reach their design capacity, the centre will be producing around 150,000t per year.
