Ural metallurgical base. Ferrous metallurgy of Russia - Abstract

Ferrous metallurgy of the Ural economic region is represented by all stages of production, from the extraction and enrichment of iron ores to the smelting of iron, steel and rolled products. This is one of the most important branches of market specialization of the Ural region. Ferrous metallurgy accounts for about 1/3 in the structure of fixed assets of the Urals.

As already noted, the Urals do not cover its needs for iron ore with its own production, ores are additionally imported from the Kursk magnetic anomaly, with Kola Peninsula(at a distance of 3000-3500 km), as well as from Kazakhstan (Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky), which is much closer. However, the problem of supplying the metallurgy of the Urals with iron ore is complicated due to the transition of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant (Kazakhstan) to the supply from the Sokolovsko-Sarbai GOK. Therefore, the task is more full development own iron ore resources. On the basis of the Kachkanar group of deposits, one Kachkanar mining and processing plant is operating, and a second one is under construction. The extraction of Bakalsky and Orsk-Khalilovsky ores is increasing, in the future, the extraction of ores occurring at considerable depths (Serovskoye, Glubochesky and other deposits) will be carried out. Great importance is also attached to the activation of geological prospecting in the north Ural mountains.

Manganese ores have not yet been mined in the Urals, although their reserves are quite significant - 41.3 million tons (Severouralsk manganese basin in the Sverdlovsk region). Until recently, ferromanganese and silicomanganese were supplied from Ukraine, and marketable ore from Kazakhstan.

There are also reserves of chromite ores in the Urals (Saranovsky group of deposits), but they are used for the production of refractories due to the low content of chromium oxide and the high content of silicon. For the smelting of ferrochromium, chromites from Kazakhstan are used.

There are no coking coals in the region, so the process fuel is imported and comes from the Kuznetsk coal basin. In order to reduce the needs of the Urals in coking coal, it is planned to apply new technologies more widely: use natural and associated gas, non-coking coal, etc.

The Urals are distinguished by a high level of concentration and combination of the production of ferrous metals. The main type of enterprises is a full cycle, producing cast iron, steel and rolled products. The largest of them - Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Orsk-Khalilovsky (Novotroitsk) combines and the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant - produce almost 80% of iron and 70% of steel smelted in the region. Other full cycle enterprises are located in Chusovoy, Serov, Alapaevsk, Beloretsk and other centers.

The conversion metallurgy is also significantly developed in the Urals, mainly at old factories, which predominate in the region in terms of number. Ferroalloys are also produced, both blast-furnace (Chusovoi) and electrothermal smelted (Chelyabinsk); pipe rolling (Pervouralsk, Chelyabinsk). Only in the Urals is there a smelting of naturally alloyed metals (Novotroitsk). The metal produced by the enterprises of the Urals is of high quality and relatively low cost.

However, there are serious problems in the industry. The structure of rolled metal produced in the region needs to be improved. The mechanical engineering of the Urals is a large consumer of rolled products, but more than 1/3 of rolled products have to be imported from other regions. There is a shortage of rolled sheets, alloyed rolled products, etc.

The high concentration of metallurgical production has, in addition to positive aspects (reducing the cost of production, etc.), also extremely negative consequences: a sharp deterioration in environmental situation, problems of water supply, population resettlement, transport, etc. Therefore, a further increase in the capacity of metallurgical enterprises is inappropriate, especially for Southern Urals, where the main production is currently concentrated and there is a lack of water resources.

An important direction for the further development of the iron and steel industry in the Urals is the technical re-equipment of existing enterprises, the accelerated implementation of the achievements of scientific and technical progress. The construction of oxygen-converter shops at the Magnitogorsk and Nizhny Tagil plants, electric steel-smelting plants with continuous casting machines at the Orsk-Khalilovsky plant, Chelyabinsk, Serov, Alapaevsky plants is underway. All pipe plants are being reconstructed.

The well-known metallurgical scientist, academician Ivan Bardin, in the preface to the book of the economist, academician Stanislav Strumilin "The History of Ferrous Metallurgy in the USSR"), published in 1954 and awarded the then prestigious Lenin Prize, pointed out a significant drawback of this monograph - incomplete disclosure in her questions about the history of Russian technology of the corresponding production, the changes that took place in it and the lack of analysis of the close connection economic history with the development of technological progress. Bardin tactfully noted that, apparently, such a wide coverage of the history of domestic metallurgy is beyond the power of one person, this requires the efforts of the team.

However, in the more than 50 years that have passed since then, no one has undertaken to put this provision into practice. And only now two authors were able to successfully solve this difficult task - the director of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Veniamin Alekseev and the chief researcher of the same institute, Doctor of Historical Sciences Dmitry Gavrilov, who published the fundamental work "Metallurgy of the Urals from ancient times to the present day (M.: Nauka, 2008).

If all previous researchers - Dmitry Kashinsky, Bernhard Kafengauz, mentioned by Stanislav Strumilin, respectively, in 1939, 1949 and 1954. who undertook to describe the history of Russian metallurgy, did not advance their works, conceived as multi-volume, beyond the publication of the first book, which turned out to be invariably the last, the monograph of these scientists covers a colossal period in its chronological framework - from ancient times to the present day.

The focus is on the history of domestic metallurgical production and the changes that took place in it. In parallel, a thorough analysis of the relationship between technical progress and the economy is given. To characterize the main stages of formation, in particular, the Urals and, in general, Russian industry, a wide range of problems is analyzed, including technical and technological, energy and raw materials components, their interaction, the socio-economic policy of the government and management organization, production and industrial personnel of the industry, the influence of internal and foreign markets, transport conditions.

Such a wide thematic coverage became possible due to the use of their own methodology and research methodology by the authors. The basis of the book is the theory of modernization of Russian metallurgy, taking into account its regional and sectoral characteristics, elaborated in detail by Veniamin Alekseev. Moreover, development as such, the changes taking place in this process are considered in the context of the global modernization process, covering all spheres of public life. Five chapters are devoted to questions of methodology, revealing this approach.

The work is the final work of a long-standing work by these authors on the study of this issue. The preparatory stages for it were the publication together with Swedish scientists of the monograph "Iron-making societies: early industrial development in Sweden and Russia, 1600 - 1900" (Oxford, 1998), the study of the industrial heritage of the Urals in the framework of TICCIH* projects, the publication of the capital work "Metallurgical plants of the Urals XVII - XX centuries: encyclopedia" (2001). This allowed scientists to move to a new, higher level of development of the topic, subject the available amount of information to a deep analysis and draw generalizing conclusions.

Although their book is devoted to the Ural metallurgy, it actually gives a detailed idea of ​​the ways and methods of development of this industry in our country, since the Urals in the XVIII - XIX centuries. was its main metallurgical region and still remains so, even despite the creation of powerful production areas in the center of the European part of Russia and in the North.

Already in the IV - III millennium BC. e., as the authors show, primitive copper-bronze metallurgy existed in this territory. An important role was played here by the discovery of iron, which at one time became the main metal in the development of the material culture of mankind in general due to its prevalence, hardness and durability. It was it that caused the transition of people from barbarism to civilization, contributed to the development of a settled way of life, the emergence of cities and ancient states, the emergence of culture, art and the beginnings of scientific knowledge.

Iron products in the Urals date back to the 1st millennium BC. e. And from the 9th century. there they began to smelt raw iron in domnitsa (shaft furnaces). With the advent of Russian masters in the region in the second half of the 16th - 17th centuries. metallurgical industries were developed, as well as several small ironworks, where the metal was smelted in the above-mentioned furnaces and forged by hand.

The truly great Ural metallurgy was born in the first quarter of the 18th century. (reign of Peter I) - a number of large blast-furnace and forging enterprises were erected here, operating with the help of water engines. The introduction of blast-furnace production, the change from a one-stage method for producing raw iron to a two-stage version - first smelting pig iron, and then the finished product from it - became the largest technical revolution in the history of the industry. It was accompanied by a sharp increase in labor productivity and improved economic indicators. The transition from the use of the muscular strength of people and animals to the use of hydraulic energy dramatically increased the role of metallurgy in the economy of the state and expanded its geographical scope.

The authors of the work believe that due to exceptionally favorable natural conditions (an abundance of forests, a wealth of high-quality shallow ores, the presence of numerous mountain streams suitable for the construction of dams), the Urals became the main center of mining construction in Russia and by the middle of the 18th century. has become the largest industrial region in the world. The metallurgy of the region during this period was formed on a developed technical base, corresponding to the level of the best factories in Sweden, Germany, England and France. Ural blast furnaces throughout the century were considered the most powerful and highly productive in Europe. The creation of a production complex here allowed Russia at that time to catch up Western countries for the production of metal. In addition, it was possible to push Sweden, the former leader of the industry, into the background on the world metal market. Domestic iron was then exported to many states of the Old World (especially to England) and even to the USA.

At the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries, it is emphasized in the monograph, a powerful turn in the technical equipment of metallurgy was associated with the industrial revolution that began in England, which was a set of technical, economic and social changes that accompanied the transition from the manufacturing stage to the factory system, i.e. to the machine industry - the most important stage in the global process of modernization, the transformation of a traditional agrarian society into a modern industrial one.

Unfortunately, in the Urals, due to the impossibility of switching to mineral fuel, the complete absence of railways, the isolation of the region, its isolation from the center of the country and other industrial regions, all this took place with a significant delay (when compared with the developed Western European states), it developed more slowly and on a more limited scale, had its own specifics: charcoal fuel was used, hydraulic engines dominated. In addition, the existing serfdom hindered the introduction of technical achievements: steam engines, high blast furnaces, hot blast, improved methods for producing iron (puddling, etc.), wide application rental devices. If in England the carriers of technical progress, with rare exceptions, were master practitioners and entrepreneurs, then characteristic feature"industrial revolution" in the first half of the XIX century. in the Urals there was an active participation in it of scientists who influenced the course of the process. Thus, the works of Peter Sobolevsky, Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, played an important role in substantiating cold blast, the works of Pavel Anosov and Pavel Obukhov influenced the development of steelmaking, and the works of Vladimir Rashet influenced the construction of blast furnaces and copper-smelting furnaces.

And although in the first half and the middle of the 19th century, when the Ural metallurgy slowed down its development, lost foreign markets and was forced to completely reorient itself to the domestic market, and the industry was in a period of socio-economic crisis, nevertheless, its technical base was quite consistent with the level charcoal smelters in the United States and Western Europe.

Development accelerated even more after the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. In the 1880s - 1890s and at the beginning of the 20th century. a serious technical reconstruction began at the large Ural plants, providing for the introduction of new methods for producing steel: open-hearth and Bessemer. Blast furnaces of a more advanced design were installed, hot blast was introduced, outdated water engines were replaced by steam engines.

In the USSR, during the period of industrialization of the late 1920s - 1930s, a radical reconstruction of the metallurgical industry of the region was carried out, new plants were built. Among them are the industrial giants Magnitogorsk and Nizhny Tagil plants, the Chelyabinsk ferroalloy plant, etc. The equipment of their main shops (blast furnace, open-hearth, rolling) built at that time was superior to the equipment of Western European countries and was not inferior to the American one. Thus, the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works was a copy of the world's best American plant Gary's US Steel Company in Indiana.

It was then that the entire Ural metallurgy was switched from wood-coal fuel to mineral fuel, which made it possible to use more powerful furnaces and units, and as a result, to dramatically increase productivity. To implement this idea, an exchange of iron ore and coal was organized between the Urals and the eastern regions of the country (Kuzbass). Along with the traditional production of cast iron, iron, steel, copper, the production of aluminum, magnesium, nickel, and zinc was mastered. We introduced advanced technologies in non-ferrous metallurgy: in the aluminum industry - the hydro-alkaline variant of obtaining alumina, in the production of zinc - the hydroelectrometallurgical method. Thus, the Urals became one of the industrial centers of the Soviet Union.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. the metallurgy of the region, which in the pre-war period produced mainly ordinary steel, was restructured to produce high-quality products for the defense industry. On a large scale, the production of high-quality and alloyed steels and alloys, armor plates was organized, for the first time in the world, high-speed automated welding of tank hulls, casting and stamping of tank turrets were used. The Urals became a "forge of weapons", "an arsenal of Victory".

In the post-war period, due to the construction of new large enterprises, mechanization and automation of production processes, enrichment and integrated use ore industry power increased. At metallurgical and mining plants (in many cases city-forming) social infrastructure has developed. At the same time, as the authors of the book rightly point out, during this period, when the state focused its main attention on equalizing the economic potential of the union republics and creating new production centers of the industry there and in the European part of Russia, the interests of the Ural metallurgy were often ignored, capital investments were clearly not enough, to radically modernize it. By the mid-1980s, it was in decline.

In the 1990s, having entered the period of a market economy and, accordingly, a sharp decline in metal consumption in the country, the enterprises of the Urals halved the output of their products. They began to adapt to market conditions and focused on the supply of raw materials and semi-finished products abroad. They managed to become the world's largest exporters of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

In the last pre-crisis years, there have been shifts: associations and holdings have appeared, and an increase in production and quality indicators has become noticeable. Currently, the enterprises of the region are experiencing a new stage of modernization, a radical transformation based on the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution. The priority direction now is the reconstruction of steel-smelting production with the replacement of outdated open-hearth equipment with oxygen-converter and electric steel-smelting equipment, the use of out-of-furnace processing and continuous casting of steel. In non-ferrous metallurgy, the problem of introducing production automation using Outokumpu** technologies is topical. The issue of expansion is urgent mineral resource base due to the complex processing of ores and minerals and involvement in manufacturing process natural resources of the Polar Urals, the Republic of Komi *** and Siberia.

The authors of the work under consideration conclude, and one can fully agree with them: strong traditions, qualified personnel, and the unfolding technical and technological re-equipment of production allow us to look with confidence into the future of the Ural metallurgy. It should be noted that considerable attention in this work is paid to determining its place in the world industrial civilization at all stages of modernization transformation. In each section of the book, using a comparative historical method, the development of the Ural metallurgy over the past five centuries is shown against the background of the corresponding industry in Western Europe and the USA. The authors quite convincingly manage, confirming their arguments with voluminous factual material, to refute the opinion about the deep lag of domestic metallurgy in comparison with other developed countries.

The undoubted advantage of the monograph is the disclosure of the role of local specialists in the formation and development of metal science ****. After all, in the XIX - early XX century. in the Urals there was a strong scientific school, there were significant by the standards of that period research centers to study the problems of the industry. Especially significant was the contribution of such scientists as Pavel Anosov and Pavel Obukhov mentioned above, as well as Dmitry Chernov, Nikolai Kalakutsky - they proposed original methods for obtaining steel and making products from it. In the theoretical understanding of the steelmaking process, the Russians were then far ahead of their foreign counterparts from Europe and the USA. In the Soviet period, the developments of academicians Mikhail Pavlov and Ivan Bardin, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vladimir Grum-Grzhimailo played an important role in solving the problems facing the Ural metallurgy. In the postwar years, the technologies created and put into production by scientists together with research and design institutes were also not inferior to foreign ones: we are talking about continuous casting of steel, blowing natural gases into furnaces, and evaporative cooling of metallurgical furnaces. And in the 1980s, they invented and for the first time in world practice applied on an industrial scale the technology of forming a fine-grained (dispersed) structure.

AT recent times Ural scientists conducted a number of major studies to study the structure and physical and chemical properties metals, heat treatment steels and alloys, the use of metallurgical raw materials. They also proposed a technology for the complex use of Kachkanar ores (the main source of vanadium production), which is of great importance for the Urals, and successfully solved the problem of supplying the country with vanadium based on titanomagnetite ores, developed a set of progressive schemes for processing poor oxidized nickel ores.

The monograph under consideration is unique and has no analogues in world historiography. In terms of its methodological approaches, it surpasses modern research by Western scientists on the subject, solves problems of paramount importance not only for the Ural metallurgy, but also for Russia as a whole. Widely illuminating rich historical experience Ural metallurgy, it will be useful to those employed in the relevant production complex engineering and management personnel, researchers, teachers, students, local historians, everyone interested in the stages of development of the industry, the history of the Urals and Russia.

* International Committee for the Preservation of Industrial Heritage.

** "Outokumpu" is a Finnish concern, a manufacturer of metals. It differs in that it independently develops the necessary production technologies and successfully implements the results of this work. So, its specialists developed the technology of flash melting, various ways obtaining copper.

*** See: D. Rundqvist, N. Yushkin. Timano-Ural treasury. - Science in Russia, 2002, N 4.

**** See: L. Leontiev, V. Ponomarev. Academic science - metallurgists. - Science in Russia, 2000, N 4.

Academician Leopold LEONTIEV, Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The main part of the Ural pig iron and steel is produced by four modern metallurgical giants - Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Orsk-Khalilovsky combines and the Chelyabinsk plant. All of them have a full production cycle and continue to expand.

Comparing the location of the old and new centers of ferrous metallurgy, it is clear that three new enterprises were built in the South Urals, away from the old mining strip. The shift of ferrous metallurgy to the south was facilitated by two circumstances: the presence of iron ore reserves that were not touched in the past and less distance from coking coal deposits than in the Middle Urals.

The centuries-old experience of the Ural metallurgists, the high quality of raw materials, the presence of some iron ore deposits of alloying metals in the ore favor the development of the production of high-quality steels in the Urals, for the production of which it has no equal among economic regions.

The Urals occupy a special place in the production of pipes. Its factories produce more than 1/3 of all pipes produced in Russia. This branch of ferrous metallurgy, which originated in the Urals in the 1920s, is one of the most promising. Five powerful pipe factories operate here, producing thousands of types of pipes with diameters from fractions of a millimeter to one and a half meters. Ural pipes are a needle of a medical syringe, and a tube for supplying fuel to the engine, and a cylinder for liquid gas or carbon dioxide, and a ball bearing cage, and sewers, and, of course, oil and gas pipelines.

Iron ore has been mined in the Urals for centuries. As usual, at first they took what was closer and of better quality. Therefore, most of the ore deposits located closer to the surface have already been mined out. But it is impossible to stop the development of the Ural metallurgy in conditions when the country needs more and more metal. And although not a single new metallurgical plant has been built in the Urals over the past decade and a half, metal smelting is growing from year to year. This is achieved through the reconstruction and expansion of existing enterprises. This way of increasing production is less expensive than the construction of new enterprises, and therefore has undeniable advantages in areas such as the Urals. With the growth of metal smelting, the demand for iron ores also grows. How is the problem of the raw material base of the Ural metallurgy being solved today?

It is known that the Urals are rich iron ore, but how many reserves of iron ores are hidden in its bowels? And how much metal can be smelted from these ores? How many years will they last? It depends not only on the size of the reserves, but also on the content of iron in them, and it varies greatly. That's why in last years Increasingly, they resort to calculating reserves by the amount of iron extracted from the ore. This method is more correct.

The main part of the Ural iron is concentrated in poor ores. That's why specific gravity The Urals in the country are much lower in terms of reserves of extractable iron. But some estimates it is 6%. This means that with the current level of development of ferrous metallurgy, the Urals will have enough of its own ores for 100 years. But not everything that lies in the ground can be used. About 2,000 iron ore deposits have been discovered in the Urals. However, only a tenth of these deposits are of industrial importance, the development of the rest, with the current level of technology and the scale of production, is considered economically unprofitable, and sometimes impossible. These are the so-called off-balance reserves, i.e., reserves that are not taken into account by a special cadastre.

Magnetites are considered the best ores of the Urals. Although they are more refractory than brown or red iron ore, they contain a lot of iron - up to 65%. Ores containing more than 50% iron are usually smelted without enrichment. There are few such ores left in the Urals. Ural plants began to switch to the smelting of poorer ores. This required the construction of mining and processing enterprises in the mines. About three dozen of them were built in the Urals.

The enrichment of ore in ferrous metallurgy began to take root later than in non-ferrous. But even now, the main part of the ores used by the metallurgical industry of our country is being enriched. A new step in the development of the mining industry is associated with the use of titanomagnetites of the Kachkanarsky and siderite ores of the Bakalsky deposits. They contain a large amount of iron ore reserves of the Urals. long time titanomagnetites did not find application in ferrous metallurgy. They are refractory, and the presence of titanium disrupted the course of the blast-furnace process due to the formation of the so-called "goats" - a refractory mass of metal and slag frozen in the blast furnace. At the same time, the blast furnace had to be stopped, part of the masonry was disassembled, the resulting mass was cut into separate pieces with nozzles and removed.

Titanomagnetites have been used in our country as metallurgical raw materials since the 1940s. This became possible after separate enrichment of ore and obtaining
separately iron and titanium concentrates. The Chusovoy plant was a pioneer in mastering the smelting of titanomagnetites, and since the beginning of the 60s, the Nizhny Tagil plant switched to the smelting of titanomagnetites.

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

(III millennium BC - II century AD) The transition to the metal era was long and, due to specific historical conditions, far from simultaneous. The oldest metal tools of Turkey, Iran, Mesopotamia belong to the 7th-6th millennium BC. e., on the territory of our country (southern Turkmenistan, Transcaucasia, southwestern Ukraine and Moldova) - by the turn of the 5th-4th millennium BC. e., and in the Urals - to the turn of the IV-III millennium BC. e. In the Early Metal Age, two periods are distinguished: the Eneolithic (the use of copper tools proper) and the Bronze Age (the use of bronze tools). One of the six oldest centers of metallurgy on the territory of the USSR was formed in the Urals, although it arose much later than the southern ones: Kopetdag, Caucasian, Balkan-Carpathian. According to the geological and geographical conditions, the Ural mining and metallurgical region is divided into two centers: the Ural one with poor copper sandstones and the Trans-Ural or Ural proper with oxidized ores containing native copper and ore bodies emerging close to the surface. In ancient times, the most accessible deposits of oxidized ores were used first of all. They are fusible, their extraction was carried out in an open way. Information about ancient mines has been preserved in the archives and writings of scientists of the 17th-18th centuries. According to the legend, "wonderful" people - "chud" mined ore in these places. Hence the names "Chudsky mines", "Chudsky mines" came from. It is also known that the “Chudsky mines” served as the starting points for searches for Russian miners of the 17th-18th centuries. The vast majority of ancient mines were destroyed in later developments. In the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, the uneven socio-economic development of the population of the Urals intensifies. The change in the productive forces, which was not equally dynamic everywhere and in everything, led to a variety of rates and levels of the historical process. It was exacerbated by long-standing, traditional and distant exchange ties, the influence of more developed societies and cultures. Further development economy in areas and individual societies was determined by the improvement and expansion of manufacturing industries, primarily metallurgy and cattle breeding. The economy, while remaining largely complex, was restructured through the coordination and subordination of industries, specialization in metallurgy, cattle breeding and commercial hunting, transformation of the appropriating and household economy on the basis of and under the influence of the producer. In a wide area from the tundra to the steppes, various economic and cultural types were formed. Economic shifts corresponded to social ones: not simultaneously, but everywhere there was a decomposition of the primitive communal system. Socio-economic and cultural transformations caused by internal causes were affected by constant contacts and movements of groups of the Urals and neighboring populations, which especially intensified in the early Iron Age. This is primarily about the relationship of the Finno-Ugric population with the Indo-European, expressed in the economic and cultural influence of the latter, as well as partial or complete assimilation of the Finno-Ugric forest-steppe of the Urals by the Indo-Europeans.

The origin and development of metallurgy. Formation of economic and cultural types

The most ancient Ural metallurgy arises under the influence of the Caucasian metallurgical center. In the III millennium BC. e. in the Southern Urals, on the basis of cuprous sandstones of the Orenburg group (Kargaly mines), the earliest Pit-Poltavka metallurgical center is formed. The tools were cast from metallurgical "pure" copper, their number is still small. The products of this focus are found in the sites of the Lower and Middle Volga region, on the Don. While borrowing technology and some forms of products from the Caucasus, Ural metallurgy developed on its own raw material and fuel (wood) base. In the first half of the III millennium BC. e. along with the Pit-Poltavka hearth, thin, but independent metallurgical hearths are formed in the South Trans-Urals and the Kama region. Hunters and cattle breeders of the Southern Trans-Urals discovered copper deposits and began their development. At the Eneolithic settlements of KysyKul in the vicinity of the city of Miass, Karabalykty IX, Murat III, Surtandy VI and VIII in the vicinity of the city of Magnitogorsk, forged copper objects of non-standard shape were found, which indicates the initial, still primitive stage of metallurgy. Native copper was mined at the ancient mines of Bakr-Uzyak (in Bashkir Copper Log) 50 km from the city of Magnitogorsk near the river. Bolshoy Kizyl, Tash-Kazgan, Voznesenskoye in the Uchalinsky district of the BASSR. /^ ~ In the Kama region, on the basis of the Permian group of cuprous sandstones, under a certain influence of the western (Balanovsky) hearth, the Garinsky-Borsky metallurgical hearth is formed. Traces of local metal smelting were found at the Bor I settlement in the lower reaches of the river. Chusovoy. Fragments of a foundry clay cup, drops of metal, a copper stem knife and an awl were found near the hearth on the floor of the dwelling. In the second quarter of the II millennium BC. e. in the forest-steppe regions of the Urals, a new, more powerful Abashevsky (Balanbashsky) metallurgical center was formed. Metallurgists used two types of ore sources: cuprous sandstones of the Ufa-Orenburg group, as well as the Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye deposits. The Abashevo population of the Urals had a highly developed art of copper processing. Ore smelting was carried out in the settlements, as evidenced by the finds of slag, melting bowls, metal products (the settlements of Balanbash, Urnyak, Malo-Kizilskoye). Ancient metallurgists knew the casting of objects in one-sided and two-sided casting molds, they also used simpler methods of copper processing - forging. The types and forms of tools and weapons that were invented by the Abashev craftsmen are diverse: a narrow-bladed dangling ax, plow sickles, intercepted knives, spears, and original decorations. The extraction of metal and the manufacture of products by the Abashevo tribes was carried out not only to meet internal needs, but also for exchange. Ural metal went to the Abashevo tribes of the Middle Volga region, in the Kama region, Ural products reached the Baltic. The wide distribution of products testifies to the significant power of the Balanbash metallurgical hearth. The development of metallurgy led to the isolation of this branch of the economy. In the Abashevo communities there were craftsmen who specialized in the production of metal products. In a burial at Pepkino found a whole set of caster's tools: a clay mold for casting a pendulous axe, two clay crucible-bowls, a hammer and a plate for grinding ore, stone and bone hammers, and a grinder. In the Eneolithic settlements of the Middle Trans-Urals, traces of local casting in one-sided forms were found, forged copper products and wooden objects were found with traces of the use of metal tools in their manufacture. However, the question of the origins of the Middle Trans-Ural metallurgy has not been resolved: whether it arises independently or under the influence of neighboring centers. From the middle of the II millennium BC. e. in the development of the Ural metallurgy, serious shifts are taking place, in particular, bronze alloys are being mastered, the tools of which were harder, more durable and more efficient in work. A number of Ural metallurgical centers are being formed. The exchange of both metal ingots and finished products is expanding. These changes coincided with the influx of a new population into the Urals from the eastern and southeastern regions countries. Along the southern edge of the forest and partly the forest-steppe of Western Siberia, tribes advanced to the Urals, which played a significant role in the development of the metallurgy of the Urals. Excavations of the Turbinsky burial ground on Shustova Gora (middle Kama) yielded a rich set of bronze items: Celts, spears, knives, adzes. The early turbine collections are represented by tin bronzes, which testify to West Siberian connections. Later finds were made from copper-arsenic alloys from trans-Ural sources (Tash-Kazgan). The Turbinsky collections turned out to be typologically close to the collections from the burial ground near the Seima station, not far from the city of Gorky. The chain of finds of Celtic axes and copies of the Seima-Turbinsky type stretches from the Yenisei to the Volga and goes back to Siberia with its roots. Related tribes that left the Seiminsky and Turbinsky burial grounds, as they moved westward, interacted with the local population, who left the settlements of the Garin-Bor type, and with the tribes of the Volga region (Volosovsky type of monuments), which subsequently led to the formation of various cultures.

Map-scheme of the location of copper deposits of the Ural mining and metallurgical region, conditionally and unconditionally exploited in antiquity (according to E. N. Chernykh)

1 - zone of copper sandstone deposits in the Urals; 2 - groups of mines; 3 - deposits

By the middle of the II millennium BC. e. in the Southern Trans-Urals, the most powerful center of metallurgy that existed at that time in the Urals, Andronovo, was formed. The main ore base of the Andronovo metallurgists were the Elenovka and Ush-Katta deposits located in the north of Mugodzhar. Copper mines were open pits up to 4 m deep. No traces of smelting were found at the place where the ore was mined. At the mine, ore was crushed to separate it from the rock and select the most valuable pieces. Enriched ore was delivered to settlements sometimes hundreds of kilometers away. The metal was melted in special melting pits, bowls, and vessels. The manufacture of tools was carried out by forging or casting in two-sided and one-sided forms. The Andronovites were dominated by tin bronzes (62% of total number objects), tin was of East Kazakhstan origin. The degree of technical equipment of the Andronovo economy is characterized by a set of metal tools: lop-butt axes, sickles, Celts-adzes, chisels, chisels, scraper knives, dagger knives, needles, maces, spears, arrowheads, etc. Various decorations and objects were also made from metal. household items. The Andronovo hearth had a significant impact on the development of the economy of the northern and western territories. The neighbors of the Andronovites in the west were the tribes of the Srubna culture, which developed their own metallurgical hearth, but the production of copper did not play any significant role among them. The metal was imported, mainly from the Urals: Local craftsmen were mainly engaged in metalworking. Having adopted some Andronovo forms of products, they introduced a lot of originality into them and developed a number of new forms. Among the population, metallurgists stand out, whose products were used not only within the community, but also for exchange. In the Tavlykaevsky settlement of the Belsko-Ural interfluve, a separate dwelling of a master metallurgist was found, located on the outskirts of the village. In the dwelling there was a melting furnace, an economic pit and a hearth; found pieces of slag, stone pestles and hammers for crushing ore, a copper ingot. It is not uncommon to find hoards of bronze tools intended for exchange. So, sickles and molds for their casting were found in the Buguruslansky district of the Orenburg region. With the emergence of the Andronovo and Srubnaya hearths, the Urals are included in the gigantic metallurgical area of ​​Western Siberia and Central Asia. Ural metal spreads west to the Dnieper, displacing Caucasian bronze from the Eastern European steppes. The discovery of metal had an impact on all aspects of the life of people of primitive society. Metal was a new, more efficient material, which led to a significant increase in productive forces. Copper and bronze provided great opportunities for creating new forms of tools and weapons. Metal contributed to the expansion of exchange, specialization and division of labor. During the Bronze Age, the economic and social forms of life changed radically. Already in the Eneolithic, patriarchal-clan relations were formed with the dominant position of men in the family and clan. The increased individualization of labor and the growth of the productive forces destroyed the foundations of the collective economy of tribal society. By the end bronze age among the agricultural and pastoral tribes, property differentiation and isolation of the nobility from the bulk of their fellow tribesmen began. However, this process in different geographical areas happened differently. In the Urals, in the taiga zone during the Bronze Age, appropriating forms of the economy continue to exist, the transition to new forms was rather slow. Further progressive development here is associated with the development of metal and the intensification of the fishing and hunting economy. In the Southern Urals, at the same time, a transition was made to a more progressive pastoral and agricultural economy, which led to the accumulation of communal wealth and tribal clashes. In the Bronze Age in the Urals, three zones can be distinguished: in the steppe and forest-steppe zone, an integrated production economy was established; The nature of the economy and the pace of its development largely depend on natural environment . The period of the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age as a whole is characterized by climate warming and several short-term deteriorations. Climate fluctuations should have also affected the nature of the landscape, especially in the border geographic zones. The increase in humidity entailed an increase in the water level in lakes and rivers, flooding of the floodplains of large rivers, which created favorable conditions for fishing. Droughts caused the shallowing of water bodies and, accordingly, the deterioration of conditions for fishing, but created more favorable opportunities for floodplain agriculture and cattle breeding. In the conditions of a changing climate, the population of the Urals moved to new forms of economy or changed the ratio of traditional ones, while the dominant role was always occupied by the most rational for that time branch of economic activity. The steppes of the Southern Urals from the Urals to the Dnieper already in the III millennium BC. e. were inhabited by tribes of pastoralists of the ancient pit cultural and historical community. Its formation was associated with the first regular settlement of the steppe spaces of the Volga-Ural interfluve by the Late Neolithic population of the forest-steppe and southern forest zones in connection with the development of cattle breeding. This population was characterized by a mobile lifestyle - semi-nomadic and nomadic. The herd included horses and sheep. Bulls, apparently, were used as transport animals. The presence of wheeled transport and draft animals is evidenced by finds of wooden wheels from wagons. The bull team appeared long before horses were harnessed to chariots and carts. The spread of wheeled transport contributed to the development of nomadic pastoralism, made it possible for pastoralists to move on a cart following the herds. There is no direct evidence of agricultural skills among the Ural group of the ancient Pit tribes. Hunting and fishing played a minor role. The economy can be characterized as producing, cattle-breeding, extensive in its basis, quickly giving a surplus product. In the Southern Urals, in the Eneolithic, a combined fishing and cattle breeding economy was formed. Settlements are located, as before, along the banks of lakes and small rivers. On the settlements of both the western slope of the Urals (Davlekanovo, Mullino, etc.) and the eastern slope (Bannoye II, Surtandy VIII, Karabalykty VIII, etc.), bones of a horse and cattle were found. The Eneolithic, apparently, was the time of adaptation of cattle breeding to the rather harsh conditions of the Southern Urals and Trans-Urals. At the end of the Chalcolithic, the population of the South Urals left the shores of lakes and small rivers and moved to the floodplains of large rivers, since in the early stages, domestic cattle breeding and hoe farming were based on floodplain lands. In the changed climatic conditions fishing and hunting could no longer provide the population with food, and the transition to more progressive forms of economy becomes a historical necessity. Thus, the origins of the formation of pastoral tribes of the Bronze Age go back to the Eneolithic, when elements of a productive economy developed in the southern regions of the Urals. In most of the territory of the Middle Urals, the leading role in the economy of the Eneolithic era is still occupied by fishing, which provided a strong settled way of life. This is evidenced by the topography of the settlements and the predominance of fishing equipment. Thus, in the lower layer VI of the section of the Gorbunovsky peat bog, 82% of the tools are fishing. Especially in the settlements, sinkers of a standard form were used for nets made of stone and clay. At the Second Andreevskaya site excavated by P. A. Dmitriev, near the city of Tyumen, weights accounted for about 80% of the total number of sacks, and the bottom of one of the dwellings was covered with a 10-centimeter-long piece of fish scales. AT winter time The population lived by hunting. In the forest-steppe and steppe zone of the Urals in the Bronze Age, the main sectors of the economy were cattle breeding and agriculture, with an insignificant role played by hunting, fishing and gathering. During the excavations of the Abashevo settlements in the Southern Urals (Balanbash, Urnyak, Malo-Kizilskoye), bones of a cow, sheep, horse and pig were found. Cows of two breeds: small dwarf and large. Pig bones belong to a very large breed. The tall breed of cattle was used as a transport animal. The bones of cattle found in the Abashevo burial under the Tsar's Kurgan confirm this assumption. The dead were brought on oxen to the place of burial, then the velas were sacrificed along with other animals. The horse began to be used as a transport animal (a bone psalium from a bridle was found at the Balanbash settlement). Tools of labor testify to the development of agriculture: stone hoes for loosening the earth, copper sickles for harvesting, stone grain grinders for processing agricultural products. Hoe farming was concentrated in the floodplains of the rivers. Appeared in the second half of the II millennium BC. e. in the Southern Urals, the tribes of the Srubna culture were also engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. The latter was more developed among them than among their predecessors - the Abashevites, agricultural tools, especially sickles, were improved, bronze hoes-adzes appeared. However, primitive hoe farming could not provide the population with food, so cattle breeding remained the leading branch of the economy. The Alakul tribes of the Andronovo community, who lived in the steppe zone to the east and south of the Urals, were engaged in floodplain agriculture, although cattle breeding was the leading direction of their economy. Sedentary pastoralists raised cows, sheep, horses, using floodplain meadows for grazing. Horses were used both for riding and in harness. The importance of the horse in meat nutrition increases with the transition from pastoral to semi-nomadic economy. An economy that combined productive and appropriating forms developed among the Cherkaskul tribes living in the south of the forest zone of the Urals. Cherkaskul culture took shape in the forest Trans-Urals, and then the tribes settled in the forest-steppe regions of the Trans-Urals and the Urals. They were familiar with metallurgy. They raised domestic animals. There was a large percentage of pigs in the herd. Hunting was of great importance. At the Cherkaskul II settlement, the bones of wild animals (moose, roe deer) account for 46.5% of the total number of bones found. Cherkaskul people also knew hoe farming (a rough hoe was found in the settlement of Kumlekul, and in Chesnokovskaya Pashna and Lake Peschanoe - bronze hooked sickles). In the taiga zone of the Urals, hunting and fishing played a leading role in the economy, and gathering was a significant help. This type of economy was preserved among the Turbine tribes of the Kama region and the Gamayun tribes of the Trans-Urals. During the transitional period from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the economy of the Ural tribes underwent significant changes. The population of the southern regions is leaving the floodplains and moving to the open steppes. This process was stimulated by the beginning rise in water in rivers and lakes, which made it difficult for floodplain agriculture and cattle breeding. The composition of the herd is also changing: the share of cattle among the Andronovo and Srubna populations is decreasing, and the percentage of horses is sharply increasing, which is better than any other animal capable of getting food from under the snow and clearing winter pastures for other animals. A transition is being made from a settled cattle-breeding and agricultural economy to a distant pasture. Before the advent of the iron plow, the steppe and forest-steppe spaces were ineffective for agriculture, so cattle breeding should have taken the leading role. However, its forms have changed. At the final stage of the Bronze Age, the basis of the economy of the steppe regions was pastoral cattle breeding. Cattle were kept on grazing all year round. This method required a seasonal distribution of pastures and was associated with certain movements. Apparently, there was a process of dividing the way of life of the population into mobile and sedentary. In the forest-steppe and in the south of the forest regions of the Urals (Mezhovskaya culture), the basis of the economy was also pastoral cattle breeding, but the composition of the herd was different than that of the population of the steppe regions of the Urals and Northern Kazakhstan. Long-term settlements, a large number of cattle (38%) and pigs (16-17%) suggest a strong sedentary population. In the floodplains of the rivers, they were engaged in agriculture, a significant role belonged to hunting and fishing. The population of the forest regions of the Volga-Kama (left monuments of the Erzov, Prikazan, Kurmantau types), under the influence of their southern neighbors, switched to cattle breeding and agriculture as the main sectors of the economy, pushing fishing and hunting into the background.

Introduction 3

Importance of iron and steel industry 4

Features of the economic and geographical position of the Ural metallurgical base 9

Assessment of the resource and fuel base of the Urals 12

Valuation of the Ural Metallurgical Base 13

Enterprises of the Ural Metallurgical Base 15

Current state 19

Economic Outlook 22

Environmental issues 25

Literature 28

Introduction

In modern conditions of the international division of labor, one of the branches of specialization of Russia is the national metallurgical industry. The metallurgical complex includes ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy: a set of interconnected industries and stages of the production process from the extraction of raw materials to the production of finished products - ferrous and non-ferrous metals and their alloys. The state and development of the metallurgical industry ultimately determine the level of scientific and technological progress in all sectors of the national economy. The specifics of the industry are the scale of production and the complexity of the technological cycle that are incomparable with other industries.

Ferrous metallurgy is one of the most important basic branches of heavy industry. Its products serve as the basis for the development of mechanical engineering (one-third of the metal produced goes into mechanical engineering), construction (1/4 of the metal goes into construction), and metalworking. In addition, ferrous metallurgy products are of export importance.

In my term paper, I would like to consider the metallurgical base of the Ural region, its problems and development prospects.

The value of ferrous metallurgy

Ferrous metallurgy is one of the most important industries. Its enterprises serve as the basis for the development of mechanical engineering, metalworking, construction, and are widely used in all sectors of the economy.

Ferrous metals include iron, manganese, chromium.

Ferrous metallurgy includes the extraction of ferrous metals, the processes of their enrichment and agglomeration, the production of refractories, the extraction of non-metallic raw materials necessary for metallurgical processing (the production of cast iron, steel, rolled products and ferroalloys), the production of industrial hardware and the secondary processing of ferrous metals. Thus, the actual metallurgical processing is provided by a number of related and auxiliary industries necessary for the normal functioning of all production links in the process of obtaining ferrous metals.

Ferrous metallurgy covers the entire process from the extraction and preparation of raw materials, fuel, auxiliary materials to the production of rolled products with products for further processing.

Ferrous metallurgy includes the following main sub-sectors:

extraction and enrichment of ore raw materials for ferrous metallurgy (iron, manganese and chromite ores);

extraction and enrichment of non-metallic raw materials for ferrous metallurgy (fluxed limestones, refractory clays, etc.);

production of ferrous metals (cast iron, steel, rolled metal, blast-furnace ferroalloys, metal powders of ferrous metals);

production of steel and cast iron pipes;

coking industry (production of coke, coke oven gas, etc.);

secondary processing of ferrous metals (cutting scrap and waste of ferrous metals).

The actual metallurgical cycle is the production of iron, steel and rolled products. Enterprises producing pig iron, steel and rolled metal belong to full-cycle metallurgical enterprises.

Enterprises without iron smelting are classified as so-called conversion metallurgy. "Small metallurgy" is the production of steel and rolled products at machine-building plants. The main type of ferrous metallurgy enterprises are combines.

Raw materials and fuel play an important role in locating the full-cycle ferrous metallurgy, especially the role of combinations of iron ores and coking coal. A feature of the location of industries is their territorial mismatch, since iron ore reserves are concentrated mainly in the European part, and fuel - mainly in the eastern regions of Russia. Combines are created near raw materials (Ural) or fuel bases (Kuzbass), and sometimes between them (Cherepovets). When placing, the provision of water, electricity, natural gas is also taken into account.

Ferrous metallurgy is the basic branch of heavy industry, which includes the extraction of iron ore, the smelting of iron and steel, the production of rolled products of various profiles and alloys of iron with other metals (ferroalloys).

The significance of ferrous metallurgy lies in the fact that it serves as the basis for the development of mechanical engineering (one third of the metal produced goes into mechanical engineering), construction (1/4 of the metal goes into construction). In addition, ferrous metallurgy products are of export importance.

In the locations of large metallurgy enterprises, enterprises of a number of other industries are concentrated - energy, coke-chemical, chemical, mechanical engineering, production of building materials, etc. The creation of heavy industry enterprises, in turn, causes intensive transport construction, leads to the emergence of large cities and industrial centers. The location of ferrous metallurgy centers is influenced by the following factors: the availability of the necessary raw materials and fuel and energy base, water resources and labor. Most of the enterprises in this industry are combines, which makes it possible to ensure the continuity of the stages of metallurgical production, reduce the duration of the metal production cycle, reduce transportation costs, and use production waste. Full-cycle metallurgical plants include all stages of the production of ferrous metals: iron and steel smelting and rolled products. Modern enterprises produce more than a thousand types of rolled products (steel sheets, rails, beams, etc.).

Ferrous metallurgy is a material-intensive production (smelting 1 ton of pig iron in a blast furnace requires 6 tons of raw materials, fuel and other materials). The main raw material is iron ore. In addition, coke is used in the production of cast iron, limestone, manganese ore, refractories are needed, and in the smelting of high-quality steel grades, alloying metals (tungsten, nickel, molybdenum, chromium, etc.) are also needed. Natural gas is used as fuel. Large amounts of electricity are needed in the production of steel without blast furnace. Our country is practically provided with raw materials for ferrous metallurgy (except for manganese ores, which we bought in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia).

Iron ore is being mined at the deposits of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly - KMA (40% of all iron ores of the CIS countries), the Urals (Kachkanarskoye and others), Karelia (Kostomukshskoye), the Kola Peninsula (Olenegorskoye and Kovdorskoye), Siberia (in Gornaya Shoria, Abakanskoye, Angara-Pitsky and Angara-Ilimsky deposits, including Korshunovskoye) and in the Far East (Kimkanskoye and others). Coking coal is supplied to full-cycle metallurgical enterprises from Kuzbass and the Pechora coal basin. Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Georgia are rich in manganese ores. Our country now has to develop and develop its resources. 2/3 of manganese ores in Russia are concentrated in the deposit near the city of Leninsk-Kuznetsky in the Kuzbass. In 1913, Russia was in fifth place in the world in the extraction of iron ore and the production of ferrous metals (after the USA, Germany, England and France).

The pipe-rolling industry (Pervouralsk and Chelyabinsk) and the production of ferroalloys (Chelyabinsk and Serov) occupy a prominent place in the ferrous metallurgy.

Since the smelting of ferrous metals is a material-intensive production, full-cycle metallurgical plants are located mainly in areas where iron ore or coking coal is mined, or between them (raw material factor for production location). A significant amount of steel is currently smelted from scrap metal (the cheaper and better method of steel smelting is 12-15 times cheaper than from iron ore). This is electric steelmaking. Metallurgical enterprises operating on this type of raw material belong to the so-called conversion metallurgy. Typically, such plants are located in large centers of the machine-building industry (the consumer factor in the location of production). Metallurgical enterprises producing special grades of steel and ferroalloys consume a large amount of electricity and therefore are located not only near sources of raw materials, but also in areas where cheap electricity is produced.

The share of ferrous metallurgy in the volume of industrial production in Russia is about 10%. Ferrous metallurgy includes more than 1.5 thousand enterprises and organizations, 70% of them are city-forming, the number of employees is more than 660 thousand people. As of 2008, Russia ranked 4th in the world in steel production (72 million tons per year). As of 2007, Russia ranks third in the world (after China and Japan) in exports of steel products (27.6 million tons per year).

As of January 1, 2007, the capacity for the production of finished rolled ferrous metals in Russia amounted to 67.9 million tons. In 2000-2008, capacities were put into operation for the production of steel for 6.7 million tons, for the production of finished rolled ferrous metals - for 4.3 million tons, for the production of steel pipes - for 780 thousand tons.

More than 80% of the volume of industrial production of the Russian ferrous metallurgy is accounted for by 9 large companies: EvrazHolding, Severstal, Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Management Company Metalloinvest, Mechel, Pipe Metallurgical Company, United Metallurgical Company, Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant Group.

Features of the economic and geographical position of the Ural metallurgical base

The production of ferrous metals in Russia is concentrated mainly at the enterprises of the three most important metallurgical bases: the Urals, Central and Siberia.

The Ural economic region is located between the old industrial regions of the European part of Russia, Siberia and Kazakhstan - at the junction of the European and Asian parts of the Russian Federation. Such a "neighborly" position can be assessed as favorable for the functioning and development of the entire economic complex.

The Ural Mountains are the axis of the region, they are elongated in the meridional direction. From the west, they adjoin the outskirts of the East European Plain (Urals), from the east - the West Siberian Lowland (Trans-Urals). The folded mountains of the Urals arose in the Paleozoic, later they were eroded, destroyed and leveled.

Thanks to such a relief, which has been forming for many centuries, the Urals can be called a "pantry" of minerals. Deposits of copper and other ores are confined to the igneous rocks of the eastern slope of the mountains. There are reserves of iron ore, which still contain chromium, titanium, vanadium. For more than a hundred years, the Grace and High mountains have been producing iron ore. Their reserves are severely depleted. 2/3 of the iron ore reserves contain the Kachkanar deposit.

Fuel resources of the Urals are represented by all major types: oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, peat. Coals are mined mainly for energy purposes. Coal lies close to the surface and is mined in a number of areas by open pit mining. The main basins are Kizelovsky coal, Chelyabinsk and South Ural lignite. Many coal deposits are depleted, most of the coal consumed is imported from other areas.

Iron ore deposits are concentrated mainly within the Ural Mountains.

The relief of the Urals is diversified by deeply incised river valleys. The main river of the region is the Kama, the leftmost tributary of the Volga.

The territory of the district due to its internal position between; the western and eastern economic zones, which have different levels of economic development and different specializations, ensures transit links between them.

The initial period of industrial development of the region dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, when its economic and geographical position was not yet favorable. In subsequent years, the district's EGP improved due to the development of transport and the construction of new roads.

Transport routes pass through the Urals, crossing the entire territory of Russia from the western borders to the Pacific Ocean. The Ural Metallurgical Base receives raw materials and fuel from the east, and manufacturing products from the west, and also exports its products to all economic regions of the Russian Federation.

The basis of the industry of the Urals is the metallurgical complex.

Ferrous metallurgy of the Ural economic region is represented by all stages of production, from mining and enrichment, iron ores to the smelting of iron, steel and rolled metal.

The Urals are characterized by a high level of concentration and combination of ferrous metal production. The main type of enterprises is a full cycle, producing cast iron, steel and rolled products. The largest of them - Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Orsk-Khalilovsky (Novotroitsk) combines and the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant - produce almost 80% of the pig iron and 70% of the steel smelted in the region. Other full-cycle enterprises are located in Chusovoy, Serov, Alapaevsk, Beloretsk and other centers.

Summing up the assessment of the economic and geographical position of the Ural metallurgical base, we can say that the Ural metallurgical base is one of the "historical" bases of Russia, which played an outstanding role in the development of Russian technical, especially metallurgical culture. A feature of the EGP is the position "at the junction" of the western and eastern economic zones: between the resources of Siberia and Kazakhstan and the industrial and scientific potential Among other regions of Russia, the region stands out for its pronounced industrial specialization, while the economy of the region is based on the basic branches of heavy industry.

Assessment of the raw material and fuel base of the Urals

Ural - has mineral raw materials and fuel minerals.

Fuel resources of the Urals are represented by all major types: oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, peat. Coal is mainly mined for energy purposes. Coal lies close to the surface and is mined in a number of areas by open pit mining.

The coal industry has a purely local significance. Mined: brown coal in the Sverdlovsk (Karpinsk) and Chelyabinsk (Kopeysk and Korkino) regions, as well as hard coal in the Perm region (Kizelovsky basin).

However, the area lacks the available energy carriers and a large amount of fuel is imported to the Urals (mainly from Western Siberia and Kazakhstan).

Deposits of copper and other ores are confined to the igneous rocks of the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains. There are iron ore reserves (2/3 of the iron ore reserves contain the Kachkanar deposit).

Copper, nickel, magnesium, and bauxite are mined in the Urals. Particularly valuable are complex ores that still contain chromium, titanium, and vanadium. Copper ores contain zinc, gold, silver.

Valuation of the Ural Metallurgical Base

Due to the high quality of raw materials and fuel, the low cost of their extraction and large-scale production of metal, its average cost at the enterprises of the Ural metallurgical base is noticeably lower than in other regions. Ultimately, this determines the effectiveness of metallurgical specialization; among enterprises introducing new metal production technologies, the priority belongs to the world's largest Magnitogorsk Combine. Its steel production is based on converter and electrical technology. As a result, the quality of the metal will increase, and the use of secondary raw materials will expand. At the same time, advanced technology will make it possible to use the possibilities of continuous casting of steel, reduce fuel consumption, increase labor productivity and, finally, significantly improve the air basin of the adjacent territory.

In the mid 90s. the Ural base accounted for most of the domestic production of manganese and chromite ores, about 1/5 of iron ores, about half of the pig iron, steel, finished rolled products and steel pipes produced in the country, as well as most of the ferroalloys smelted in Russia. The main part of the iron ore of the base is mined in the Sverdlovsk region at the Kachkanar group of deposits and in the Orsko-Khalilovskaya mines, where almost all domestic chromites are mined. Manganese ores on an extremely limited scale in the Middle Urals.

More than 80% of the smelting of pig iron, steel, ferroalloys and most of the Ural rolled products come from four large metallurgical plants built during the years of socialist industry: Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Chelyabinsk and Novotroitsk. In addition, there are a number of old, relatively small metallurgical plants in the cities of Perm, Serov, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Pervouralsk, Zlatoust, Revda.

The Ural Metallurgical Base produces 51% of pig iron, 44% of steel, more than 43% of finished rolled products, about 3/5 of pipes, 100% of ferrochrome, significantly ahead of the Central Black Earth Region, the European North and Western Siberia. In its development, it relies on its own iron ore resources, which are still fully used, on the ore resources of Kazakhstan and partly of the KMA.

Enterprises of the Ural Metallurgical Base

The largest metallurgical enterprises of the full cycle of the Ural Metallurgical Base are:

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. It is one of the largest domestic ferrous metallurgy enterprises.

The area of ​​the industrial site of the plant, occupied by production facilities, is about 7,000 hectares, and the total area exceeds 10,000 hectares. In the total volume of metal products sold in the domestic Russian market, the share of MMK is about 20%.

The enterprise has a full production cycle, which begins with the preparation of iron ore and ends with the deep processing of ferrous metals.

MMK offers the widest range of metal products to the consumer. About 40% of the products produced by the plant are exported to various countries peace.

Among the offered product range of the enterprise one can find: iron ore, sinter, cast iron, steel, wire rod, slabs, circle, hot-rolled coils, channel bars, hot-rolled special profiles, cold-rolled sheets and much more.

Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works is the largest enterprise in Russia with a full metallurgical cycle for the production of high-quality and high-quality steels. Since 2001 ChMK has been part of Mechel. The plant is deeply integrated into the work of many enterprises of the group and is the flagship of the company's metallurgical production.

The Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant produces a wide range of products: pig iron, semi-finished steel products for further processing, rolled bars and sheets from carbon, structural, tool and corrosion-resistant steel grades.

The plant produces a profile assortment from wire rod with a diameter of 6.5; 8.0 mm to reinforcing steel No. 40, from long products with a diameter of 80 ... 180 mm for pipe-rolling and machine-building plants to square billets 75, 80, 98, 100 ... 300 mm, sheet ordinary steel, stainless steel and sheet steel. The company has a quality management certificate international standard ISO 9001:2000.

The Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant is one of the few enterprises in the country that has been given the right to assign its own index to products - CHS (Chelyabinsk Steel). To date, more than 130 such steel grades are produced.

Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works is located in the Middle Urals, in the city of Nizhny Tagil - in the very heart of the Ural Mountains, on the border of Europe and Asia.

Nizhny Tagil today is the second largest city in the Sverdlovsk region in terms of number and volume of industrial production (after Yekaterinburg).

Metallurgical production in Nizhny Tagil owes its appearance to the same factors that gave rise to the Ural metallurgy as a whole: the country's sharply increased demand for metal in connection with the domestic and foreign policy of the reformer tsar Peter I; prospecting and discovery of iron ore deposits in the Urals; the activities of the founders of the famous Russian dynasty of entrepreneurs - Nikita and Akinfiy Demidov ...

The construction of the plant began in 1720, and the first pig iron was received on December 25, 1725. The Nizhny Tagil plant was significantly ahead of both the plants of Central Russia and the Nevyansk plant in terms of productivity, cost and quality of iron.

The main types of products manufactured by NTMK: rails, wheels for rolling stock, tires for rolling stock, car racks, rings, I-beams, channels, angles, sheet piles, grinding balls, pig iron, square blanks and other products are produced at NTMK.

Ural Steel is one of the largest domestic producers of strips, pipe blanks and bridge steel and is part of the Metalloinvest holding.

Ural Steel produces and sells the following types of products:

Cast iron and casting iron,

Sheet metal (strip, pin, etc.),

Long products (square billet, axial billet, etc.),

profile rental,

pipe billet,

stamped products,

Coke and coke breeze

Ammonium sulfate,

Wall cinder block, etc.

The company's products are sold in Russia and also exported to Europe (Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark) and Asia (China, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan).

Beloretsk Iron and Steel Works, located in the Southern Urals, is one of the oldest metallurgical enterprises in the country and is part of the Mechel OAO group.

Currently, about 12% of the hardware produced in Russia falls on the share of JSC "BMK". The plant's products are purchased by more than 3,000 enterprises and organizations of the country.

Beloretsk Iron and Steel Works annually produces over 560 thousand tons of wire rod and over 350 thousand tons of various hardware.

OJSC "Ashinsky Metallurgical Plant", located in the Chelyabinsk region, is one of the largest Russian manufacturers and exporters of rolled products.

The metallurgical complex of Ashinsky Metallurgical Plant JSC has a full production cycle and offers its customers a wide range of products: rolled metal sheets from both ordinary quality steel and low-alloy, structural, heat-resistant, corrosion-resistant and heat-resistant steel grades and alloys. The company also produces magnetic cores, powders from soft magnetic alloys, electromagnetic screens and much more.

In addition, the plant produces a wide range of products consumer goods made of stainless steel (cutlery, kitchen sets, dishes, lighters, thermoses, etc.) At present, the enterprise ranks fourth among domestic manufacturers of cutlery and kitchen utensils.

For production, AMZ purchases coal, coke, fuel oil, scrap metal, ferroalloys, lumber from third-party organizations.

Metallurgical Plant named after A.K. Serov, located in the Sverdlovsk region, is part of the metallurgical division of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC).

Currently, the Metallurgical Plant named after A.K. Serov has more than 200 steel grades, and also offers the consumer a wide selection of rolled products:

Hot rolled square, round and hexagon,

Rolled stock calibrated; hot-rolled equal-shelf steel corners,

pig iron,

Granulated blast-furnace slag, etc.

The products of the metallurgical plant are in demand not only in Russia, but also in foreign countries - Great Britain, the USA, Germany, Italy, the Baltic states, Korea, Uzbekistan, etc.

The company's products are used in the automotive industry, mechanical engineering, pipe plants and the oil industry. More than 300 domestic enterprises of the machine-building complex purchase rolled metal from the A.K. Serov MZ.

OJSC "Chusovskoy Metallurgical Plant"(ChMP) is one of the oldest ferrous metallurgy enterprises in the Urals with a full technological cycle of metal production. ChMP is located in the city of Chusovoy, Perm Region, and is part of the United Metallurgical Company (OMK).

Current state

At present, ferrous metallurgy is experiencing an acute crisis, where the decline in production has reached a critical point. The giants of ferrous metallurgy are in a difficult situation. Magnitogorsk and Nizhny Tagil plants. This can be explained not only by structural restructuring in the conditions of the emerging market, but also by the need for reconstruction of these enterprises, the replacement of a completely open-hearth production with converter and electric smelting, since in market conditions it is impossible to maintain inefficient uncompetitive production. There is also no need for a huge iron foundry, which creates an aggravated ecological situation.

The most important task is to create a market infrastructure, reform the forms of ownership in the ferrous metallurgy industry, develop joint ventures with the attraction of domestic and foreign investments, as well as the creation of small enterprises and the development of entrepreneurship.

The share of ferrous metallurgy products in the cost of production and sale of products in mechanical engineering is 13-18%, in the building materials industry - 7-12%, in the industry as a whole - about 7%. The outpacing growth in prices for metal products leads to a redistribution of income between sectors of the economy, increases the costs of enterprises in metal-consuming industries and negatively affects their financial and economic performance. The sharp rise in prices for metal products has a particularly negative impact on industries whose prices and tariffs are regulated and restrained by the state, such as rail and pipeline transport, the electric power industry, and, to a large extent, the gas and oil industries.

In recent years, the Russian government has taken measures to protect the domestic market, abolished import duties on key equipment, supported Russian firms in purchasing steel assets abroad, and took steps to reduce foreign trade restrictions on foreign markets that apply to Russian steel products. These measures contributed to the positive results of the Russian metallurgy in the 2000s.

Since the beginning of 2008, there has been a significant increase in prices for metal products and raw materials on the world market. The stimulus for the increase in prices for iron ore raw materials and coking coal was the rapid development of China's metallurgy. In the period from January 2006 to April 2008 alone, prices for these types of raw materials on the world market increased from 2 to 3.4 times. The world market of ferrous scrap in 2008 also experienced an unprecedented rise in prices. Thus, from the beginning of the current year until April, the average world quotations of black scrap rose by 80 - 100% to an average level of about $ 700 per ton on FOB terms, depending on the place of sale.

At the same time, the growth of China's influence on the world metallurgy continued, associated with an increase in the demand of its economy for metal products and raw materials. The PRC is stepping up the implementation of measures to upgrade the structure and production base of the national metallurgy, including the closure of inefficient enterprises and the tightening of lending conditions, but the volume of commissioning of new capacities still significantly exceeds the retirement of obsolete ones. Chinese business and the state remain interested in building up the mineral resource and production base through the acquisition of foreign assets, for which a record $32 billion was spent in 2009. China accounted for 24% of all M&A transactions in the mining sector compared to 18% in 2008 G.

In the ferrous metallurgy, a number of large producers in Southeast Asia (SEA) postponed the increase in prices to March, but a significant part of the companies already take into account the increase in the cost of raw materials when concluding contracts for the supply of steel products. At the same time, demand in most sectors of the market remains limited.

IRON - Ore has more than doubled from last year's lows and current spot prices are 80% above contract prices for Japanese consumers set for 2009-2010. Against this background, the top three exporters of iron ore raw materials /ZHRS/ believe that at least a 40% increase in the cost of supplies under contracts in 2010-2011 is fair. Officially, China and other main consumers of iron ore in Southeast Asia are not ready for such a rise in prices, but some companies agree to accept the terms of exporters, expecting an even greater rise in prices for raw materials.

STEEL - according to the results of 2009, world production decreased by 8.27% to 1.219715 billion tons. At the same time, China increased output by 13.11% to 567.842 million tons, Japan - decreased by 26.27% to 87.534 million tons, USA - reduced by 36.44% to 58.142 million tons, India - increased by 2.83% to 56.608 million tons, South Korea - decreased by 9.14% to 48.598 million tons. In the EU countries, production fell by 30% to 139 .1 million tons. The degree of capacity utilization in the global steel industry, which reached more than 90% in mid-2008, in December 2009 was only 71.5%, while in the EU and the US it did not exceed 55-65%. The output of stainless steel in 2009 amounted to 23.9 million tons.

Economic Outlook

The situation of 2008-2009 affected the majority of ferrous metallurgy enterprises. Thus, the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, one of the largest plants in Russia, belonging to the Ural Metallurgical Base, in 2008 reduced the output of finished rolled products by 10.6% compared to 2007 (by 4.1% compared to 2006). It is worth noting the fact that by February 2009, the plant had laid off 2,000 workers.

Growth in output of finished steel last year can be noted only at JSC "Oskolsky Electrometallurgical Plant" (OOO Management Company "Metallinvest"). The company uses the method of direct reduction of iron in the production of products, which allows to achieve high performance compared to traditional production methods. In 2008, the volume of production increased by 6% compared to 2007 (in 2007, the growth was 9.3% compared to 2006).

The largest decline in finished steel production in 2008 occurred at OAO Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Works, which is part of international company Evraz. Production decreased by 16.7% compared to 2007.

In general, according to the results of 2008, the volume of production of finished rolled ferrous metals amounted to 56.6 million tons.

Decrease in orders from enterprises of oil and gas, engineering and other industries also led to a decrease in the output of steel pipes, which are widely used in these industries. Steel pipe production volumes in 2008 amounted to 7.77 million tons, in 2007 this figure was 8.7 million tons. In the first quarter of 2009, the output of steel pipes decreased by 29.7% (1.4 million tons) compared to the same period in 2008.

In March 2009, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade approved the Strategy for the Development of the Metallurgical Industry of the Russian Federation until 2020.

The crisis year of 2009 was extremely difficult for Russian ferrous metallurgy enterprises. A sharp drop in demand and prices for products caused a halt in the production of some enterprises, smaller enterprises came under the control of larger ones. The crisis, like a breathalyzer, revealed and exposed weak sides industries. Against the backdrop of a general decline in steel production in 2009, the prospects for 2010 seem quite optimistic.

Many analysts, both Russian and foreign, predict an increase in ferrous metal production at Russian enterprises by 16%. In fact, this means reaching the pre-crisis level in terms of production volumes, i.e. to the level of 2008. This process will be stimulated by internal and external factors. First, with the recovery of the economies of developed countries, primarily the countries of the European Union, which are traditionally the largest consumers of ferrous metallurgy products, their import volumes will increase significantly. The relatively low exchange rate of the ruble will also stimulate the high competitiveness of Russian enterprises. Secondly, in 2010-2011. A gradual increase in demand for ferrous metals is also predicted in the domestic market, compared to 2009 in the 3rd-4th quarter of 2010 the demand will grow by 10-15%. This process will also be stimulated by the relatively low price dynamics in this sector of the economy, the price rotation is expected to be no more than 10%. It is formed due to rising prices for coking coal and iron ore. On the one hand, rising prices for this raw material will support the industry, but on the other hand, it will increase production costs.

The rise in prices for coal and iron ore provokes an ever-increasing demand from China, in which even in 2009. there was an increase in the production of ferrous metals. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, the growth of investments in ferrous metallurgy in 2010 will increase by 19%. Based on a general analysis of the current trends, we can confidently assume that in 2010 the iron and steel industry is confidently emerging from the crisis, the demand for its products is increasing, investments and product prices are growing, which will allow the industry to develop dynamically. As auto video recorders are witnesses of traffic accidents, so the ferrous metallurgy was a witness and participant in all the difficulties of the crisis period.

The recovery of the world metallurgy in 2010 will continue, the average growth rates compared to the 2nd half of 2009 will show some growth, however, reaching pre-crisis levels is more likely in 2011. time, for some types of products, the likelihood of local recessions will remain. In the ferrous metallurgy in the 1st half of 2010, the recovery will be more pronounced in the regions that allowed the largest decline during the crisis, ie. in North America and Europe. A more even growth is likely from the 2nd quarter of 2010 as demand recovers from metal-consuming industries and annual contracts for the supply of raw materials are concluded with consumers in Southeast Asia.

Environmental problems

In the minds of people, metallurgy is associated with great environmental evil. The colossal volumes of processed raw materials, the widest use of high-temperature technologies and combustion processes predetermine the corresponding impact on the environment. The influence of metallurgy on nature and man is especially great in the regions where high-capacity metallurgical plants are located. This is an additional fee for obtaining metals - the foundations of modern civilization. Human life cannot be imagined without metals, which is reflected even in the classification of eras (Bronze Age, Iron Age).

The environmental hazard of waste is determined by a combination of many factors. First of all, this is their physical condition, chemical composition and the presence of ecotoxicants. Technogenic wastes of metallurgy often contain elements that are dangerous for humans and the ecosystem. These are arsenic, sulfur, phosphorus, heavy non-ferrous metals - zinc, lead, cadmium. The environmental hazard of such waste increases dramatically due to their dispersion.

The greatest threat is caused by dust and sludge, which are dispersed by the wind during storage. Small particle sizes contribute to the transition of elements into water-soluble compounds, the so-called leaching. Due to the amphoteric nature of many metals, leaching occurs at any pH. Harmful substances and heavy metal ions enter the water and soil. The dusts of electric steel-smelting furnaces, which also contain chlorine and fluorine, are very toxic (in the USA, the charge for their storage is tens of dollars per 1 ton). The concentration of harmful components in dusts and sludges is tens and hundreds of times higher than in slags, which is associated with the volatility of many impurities. Therefore, even a simple transformation of dust into a compact state (sintering, fusion) gives a significant environmental effect. Harmful impurities are also found in non-ferrous metallurgy slags, but here they are in a compact state of a slag monolith, which significantly reduces the environmental hazard. Even more inert are the slags of ferrous metallurgy.

Thus, metallurgy wastes include both highly toxic materials (dusts) and relatively inert materials (blast-furnace slags). But even the storage of hundreds of millions of tons of waste requires the rejection of large areas. The high concentration of metallurgical production also has extremely negative consequences: a sharp deterioration in the environmental situation, problems of water supply, resettlement of the population, transport, etc. Therefore, a further increase in the capacity of metallurgical enterprises is not advisable, especially in the South Urals, where the main there is a lack of water resources.

The most important perspective problem is the improvement of the ecological situation. The zones of ecological disaster are microdistricts in the Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions.

Disturbance of land by mining, air pollution, depletion and pollution of land waters, soil pollution, loss of productive land, forest degradation

A difficult situation has developed with the natural environment in the Ural metallurgical base, especially in the old mining centers. Atmospheric pollution, depletion of water resources, non-complex use of mineral resources, the dominance of the military-industrial complex, radiation pollution of the territory, oversaturation with industrial enterprises - this is not a complete list of the problems of the Ural base.

Almost the entire territory of the Urals is subject to a powerful anthropogenic load. Currently, the Urals is considered a zone of ecological disaster, 7 cities are listed in the "black" ecological book of Russia: Yekaterinburg, Kurgan, Nizhny Tagil, Perm, Magnitogorsk, Kamensk-Uralsky and Chelyabinsk. Only metallurgical enterprises emit hundreds of thousands of tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere every year. Industrial wastes are almost never recycled, more than 2.5 billion m 3 of metallurgical production wastes have accumulated in the region, despite the fact that part of the wastes is used for the production of building materials and chemical industry products. Metallurgical slags are used as fertilizer and as building materials. Thousands of hectares of land are withdrawn for mining, underground and surface waters, soils, atmosphere are being polluted, and vegetation is being destroyed. Undoubtedly, the ecological crisis jeopardizes the success of economic reforms in the base, since the required costs for the elimination of at least basic environmental violations are several times higher than the amounts allocated for these purposes throughout the country.

It is necessary to develop a federal target program for economic development and improvement of the ecological situation.

Literature

Protasov V.F., Molchanov A.V. Economic geography: nature management in Russia. - M.: Finance and statistics, 2000

Pylneva T.G. Nature Management: Proc. allowance. – M.: Finstatinform, 1997

Rodionova I. A. Economic geography - M.: 2001

Kistanov V.V., Kopylov N.V. Regional economy of Russia - M.: Finance and statistics, 2003

Morozova T.G., Pobedina M.G., Shishnov S.S. Economic geography of Russia - M.: UNITI, 2000

On the state and prospects for the development of ferrous metallurgy in the Russian Federation July 24, 2008. Website of the President

4.03.10 / State and forecast of development of the ferrous metallurgy market based on the results of January 2010 PRIME-TASS

http://www.metaprom.ru - Industry of Russia: industrial Internet portal

metallurgy Northwest Russia. The first iron ore concentrate...

1. Black metallurgy and steel production

   Abstract >> Industry, production

   than in the European Russia. Huge blast furnaces Ural factories had high ... processes in black metallurgy. Low production in black metallurgy Russia especially obvious, ... will become one of the main metallurgical bases. Coke is imported from...

2. Spatial structure black metallurgy in Russia

   Abstract >> Geography

   Industry black metallurgy is located locally. There are three metallurgical bases: Ural, Central and Siberian. natural basis black metallurgy serve...

3. Metallurgical complex and its significance for Russia

   Abstract >> Geography

   ... metallurgical complex Russia. Committee of the Russian Federation for metallurgy developed proposals for the development of raw materials bases black metallurgy ...