Russian steel mill restarts blast furnace after crisis

ZLATOUST, August 14 (Itar-Tass) -- A steel mill in the Ural city of
Zlatoust restarted a blast furnace on Thursday that was shut down several
months ago because of the economic crisis.
Regional industry Minister Yevgeny Teftelev said the governor and the
presidential representative in the Ural federal district had to interfere
to have Zlatoust mill recovered.
He said the management of the enterprise was changed and a strategic
partner found, which is the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Mill. Several dozen
million rubles of wage arrears were paid.
"The restart of the furnace will bring back to work 250 steel
workers," Teftelev said, adding the production of rolled stock will soon
go round-the-clock, which will add another 250 jobs.
He said the mill plans to produce 25 thousand tons of steel in August,
a several-fold increase against July.

-0-nec