EVRAZ & Rail Service JV Allegro Selects ANDRITZ for Full-Cycle Wheels Manufacturing Line

LLC Allegro, the joint venture of EVRAZ, a global steel and mining company and the leading producer of infrastructure steel products with low-cost production along the value chain, a Metal-Expo regular exhibitor, and Rail Service Industrial Group established to set up a railway wheels manufacturing facility, signed equipment delivery contract with ANDRITZ, an international technology group. ANDRITZ Group companies ANDRITZ MAERZ and Schuler will supply to Allegro a full-cycle wheels manufacturing line, first deliveries of equipment scheduled for Q1 2022.

Production flow will be structured as follows. Steel semis produced by EVRAZ NTMK will be heated to 1,250 degree in a furnace. Descaled, they will be shaped into wheels in a 10,000-tonne hydraulic press and finished in the rolling mill and a 5,000-tonne piercing press. Following a laser check of the wheel’s geometry and marking, wheels will be heat-treated to harden their working surfaces.

The agreement on construction of the new railway wheels manufacturing facility was signed with the management of the Special Economic Zone Titanium Valley (Sverdlovsk Region) in March 2020. The total investment in the project is estimated at RUB 16 billion (about USD 200 million) with an annual expected production capacity of 200,000 solid-rolled wheels (with a possible scaling to 300,000). Production launch is scheduled for Q4 2022, creating 425 new jobs.