MSW is one of three mini-mills built as far as in 1980-s in the former USSR. Construction of the plant started in 1981 and the first steel heat was produced in October, 1984.
  The mill comprises two main production shops - the Electro- Steelmaking Shop (ESMS) and the Rolling Mill Shop (RMS).
  According to the design the ESMS had two EAFs (100 И6) and two CCM with a total capacity of 700 000 t of steel per year. Only 206 000 t of steel billets were produced in the first year of operation. The low output resulted from a poor performance of the designed production equipment. Both EAFs and CCMs had design imperfections which destroyed the efficient operation of these units.
  Since 1985 the Steelmaking Shop of the mill has been regularly upgraded and modernised. The immense scope of modernisation works carried out in the ESMS and the RMS in conjunction with foreign companies allowed the plant to shift from two production lines to the operation with the use of only one production line, and namely the EAF -the Ladle Furnace - the CCM.
From 1997 to 2003 further improvement and development of production processes were performed with the use of the internal sources of the plant. After the stage of modernisation which was completed in September, 1999 the annual capacity of the EAF and the CCM reached 1 000 000 t of steel.


The ESMS operates the EAF with the following technical characteristics:

Average tap weight	120 t
Maximum capacity of EAF	140 t
Nominal power of EAF transformer	95 MVA
Maximum secondary voltage	951 V
Electrode diameter	600 mm

EAF performance data:

29 heats with transformer 95 MVA	3498,1 t a day
Average tap-to-tap time	50,1 min.
Power On time	39,6 min.
26 heats with transformer 80 МVА	3153 t a day
Average tap-to-tap time	55 min.
Power On time	46 min.

  In May, 2004 a record output of 92090 t of crude steel was achieved.
  The secondary metallurgy is performed in the Ladle Furnace Installation and VD/VOD vacuum degasser.

Technical characteristics of the Ladle Furnace:

Nominal Power of LF	25 MVA
Electrode diameter	400 mm

  The Ladle Furnace is equipped with a ferroalloys storage/weighing/feeding system, wire feeding machines, and lime/coke breeze feeders.
  The main feature of VD/VOD vacuum degasser installed at MSW is the application of dry pumps which ensure the efficient degassing of high-quality steels at low operational costs.
  The degasser achieves the deep vacuum condition within 7-8 minutes.
  Today the whole tonnage of the produced crude steel is cast on the CCM installed in the ESMS.

Technical characteristics of the Continuous Casting Machine:

Billet section	125 х 125 mm ± 3 mm
Billet length	6000 - 12000 mm ± 100 mm

The Rolling Mill Shop (RMS)
  The continuous light-section rolling mill (320/150) was designed by Ukrghipromez, Ukraine, and equipment was manufactured and installed by SKET (Magdeburg, Eastern Germany).
  The designed capacity was 500 000 t of rolled products per year.
  In 1988 the rolling mill reached the designed capacity and in 1990 the output made up 540 000 t of rolled products (mainly light sections).
  According to the design it was 320/150 combined one line rolling mill. Billets were rolled either in the bar line or in the wire rod line. The upgrading which was completed in 1997 turned the rolling mill into a two line rolling mill with a capability to roll bars and wire rod in parallel.
  Another stage of upgrading of the rolling mill was completed in October, 1999 and STELMOR line with controlled cooling was extended up to 147m, with 120m of the line being equipped with covers. The aim of this upgrading was to improve microstructural characteristics of the produced wire rod. The controlled cooling of wire rod makes possible production of new kinds of rolled products such as soft wire rod of deep drawing quality, welding quality low alloyed wire rod, spring quality wire rod. The upgraded line allows to produce wire rod with specific quality characteristics, for example, 380 N/mm2 low carbon wire rod can be drawn down to 1,0 mm wire without an intermediate annealing.
  A new wire block with a rolling speed of 110m/sec was commissioned in 2001. The rolling speed from 110…120 m/sec resulted in the higher capacity of the rolling mill. The annual output of rolled products grow up from 850 000t up to 900 000t.
  In May, 2004 the mill achieved its record monthly output of 72 486 t of rolled products.

The range of rolled products:

Reinforcing bars in cut lengths	sizes from 6mm to 40mm
Wire rod	diameters from 5,5 mm to 14 mm
Angle bars	wing width 25-50 mm, wing thickness 3- 6 mm
Channel	№ 5

  Modernisation and upgrading of the process equipment and technologies in the ESMS and the RMS had the effect of improved quality. The plant certified its continuous cast steel billets with TUF BAERN Certification Body and reinforcing steel bars of BSt500S to DIN 488 were approved by IFBT (German Institute for Construction Technique). The plant's Quality Management System has approval of Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance to ISO 9002. Many times the high quality of products manufactured by Moldova Steel Works was recognised and awarded by various international bodies.