Nippon Steel hires Mike Pompeo to advise on US Steel deal
Nippon Steel also faces objections from the powerful United Steelworkers (USW) union, which fears the deal could lead to job losses.
Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) saved about $7.7 million in 2018 thanks to the use of a mathematical model to optimise the delivery and consumption of coal.
In a press release, the company said that the savings were achieved by improving the structure of coal charge and the quality of coke based on the analysis of data of coke and blast furnace production since 2011.
“The programme is based on the creation of a comprehensive multi-level model of sinter production, designed to optimise the production processes of the first processing stage,” the media statement reads.
MMK said that the model is used for purchasing coal concentrates and integrating the knowledge and requirements of all services involved in this process. This means that monthly calculations have to be performed as part of the process of purchasing coal concentrates.
MMK is also developing an optimisation mathematical model for delivery and consumption of iron ore raw materials
The calculations, which are done on a multi-user web interface, involve a forecast of the quality of coke when given the structure and volume of raw coal; the optimisation of the structure of the delivery and consumption of coal charge; and an analysis of the sensitivity of the optimisation calculation to prices and calculation of the recommended effective prices for the purchase of coal concentrates.
MMK’s operations include a large steel-producing unit encompassing the entire production chain, from the preparation of iron ore to downstream processing of rolled steel. In 2018, the Magnitogorsk-based firm produced 12.7 million tonnes of crude steel and 11.7 million tonnes of commercial steel products.
