The Rybnitsa Steel Works will resume the rolling process and is already at the stage of preparing the specialized hall, IPN’s correspondent in the Transnistrian region reports.
The water supply to the cooling systems was restored, and the plant has 10,000 tonnes of steel billets from Krivoy Rog in stock.
The plant's plan is to restart production during the night at first, in order to reduce the overload of the electricity grid.
The announcement about the resumption of rolling production comes in the context of the Transnistrian administration’s decision, taken last week, to interrupt the supply of heat after the weather warms up, in order to save resources.
The rolling mill is an important link in the production chain of the Rybnitsa Steel Works. The process is based on electricity, being directly connected to the task of the steel mill to produce the billet.
The furnace runs on gas, and the rolling mill - on electricity. Respectively, the relaunch of the rolling mill will allow the plant to deliver production for export, not simply to store metal.
In the context of the gas problem in the Transnistrian region, expert Alexandr Slusari, former deputy speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, warned the Moldovan authorities about the reactivation of the rolling mill at the Rybnitsa Steel Works: "We are waiting for the reaction of Prime Minister Recean, who insisted that we allow the transit of gas only for humanitarian purposes. For a few days, those from Transnistria did not consume all the gas supplied. MoldovaGaz made reserves for them in pipes on the right bank. Therefore, the pressure in the system increased and the Romanian operator, responsible for transporting the gas, intervened."
The Rybnitsa Steel Works was stopped when the energy crisis arose, following Gazprom’s decision to stop gas supplies to the Republic of Moldova on January 1. Given the instability in terms of gas supplies to the Transnistrian region, the further work of the plant remains problematic.
The Rybnitsa Steel Works is one of the main industrial enterprises in Moldova and a key exporter on the left bank of the Nistru. Among the main commodities are rolled steel, rods and other metal products, all of which are delivered to the EU, Turkey and the CIS.
