Vladimir Denisov

    Russia’s territory stretches from the West to the East for 10.000 km and from the North to the South for 5.000 km. Covering such an enormous space was and still is one of the major problems for the economy and the life of the country as whole since the times of developing Siberia. The construction of the Trans-Siberian trunk railroad (Transsib), which connected the country’s central part with the Pacific coast, was regarded as a major achievement of the State. The 100th anniversary of Transsib in the summer of 2001 was marked as a national holiday.
Railroads in Russia are a federal property. They are managed by the ministry of railroads on behalf of the RF government. The reform plan envisages setting up a joint-stock company Russian railroads but this company will still be controlled by the State. At present the first 160-kilometer private railroad from the Urals’ federal trunk railroad to the Sredne-Timan bauxite mine is being constructed in the northeast of the country’s European part. The owner of the new railroad, which should be commissioned this August, is SUAL Holding, an aluminum company.
The ministry of railroads is one of the largest consumers of metallurgic products, rails and wheels. Altogether over 21 million tons of rails are laid at Russian railroads. There are two enterprises, which are making rails. They are the Nizhny Tagil integrated iron-and-steel mill (NTMK) and Kuznetsk integrated iron-and-steel mill (KMK). Since 2000 both have been managed by a single company and that is EvrazHolding. This is the specific feature of the Russian rail market: a monopolistic producer and a monopolistic customer. The same is practically true for making wheels for locomotives, freight and passenger cars. Their chief maker is the Vyksa steel mill JSC (VMK), which manufactures solid-rolled wheels of over 20 standard sizes. By some types of products the mill is competing with NTMK. Railroads in Russia became the state property a very long time ago. They were bought out from private owners as far back as the 19th century. In order to prevent the absence of competition from affecting the quality of track structure elements, such as rails, fasteners, switches, etc., the interdepartmental Rail commission was formed 120 years ago under emperor Alexander III and this commission is still around. Neither revolutionary coups nor social turmoil changed the commission’s aims: to secure high quality of rails.
It is noteworthy that in any country not that many professionals know everything about rail problems and are capable of finding ways to solve them. There are about a hundred of such experts in Russia. These are scientists and engineers, who work in the railroad and metallurgical industries. Almost all of them are members of the Rail commission.
Every year the commission holds just one session. Although its decisions amount to recommendations, they are not ignored either by rail makers or by their customers. This way the concept of joint work of both sides is being realized. Nowadays this Russian approach is used in all industrialized nations as well.
The demand for rails used at Russia’s railroads is determined by the outlook for development of the latter and the need of their routine repairs. Transcontinental transportation corridors are being built around the country, though its participation in international transportation flows is insignificant. The transportation «bridge» between countries of Western Europe and Asian-Pacific region will help change the situation. The Trans-Siberian trunk double-track and electrified railroad will gain a new technological importance. To this end some sections of the railroad should be modernized. Now the ministry of railroads is already modernizing railroad stations on Russian borders with Mongolia and China, reconstructing container terminals and accesses to the Far Eastern sea ports. The long-term plans provide for laying a railroad to the island of Sakhalin and farther on to Japan. Up to 100 million tons of freight, including about 200.000 transit containers, might be hauled by Transsib. Its capacity is to increase even more in the coming years.
The other project is a transportation corridor to connect countries of Northern Europe with the Middle East. There are several options of its implementation. As first deputy minister of railroads Vadim Morozov thinks, the most interesting one is a corridor with the southern part going by the Caspian Sea’s West coast via Azerbaijan to Iran, Pakistan, India and countries of the Persian Gulf. Implementation of this option requires laying a new railroad across Azerbaijan and Iran. Baltic states, Byelorussia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, India, Iran and Oman have already declared their intention to participate in constructing this corridor.
Each of these projects is promising large contracts for metallurgic products. Besides, the Russian ministry of railroads needs 750.000 tons of rails annually for overhauling railroads. Price and quality will, of course, remain decisive factors in choosing a supplier.
The economic expediency calls for a differentiated approach to assessing rails’ quality. For example, high-speed movement sections need rails of increased straightness, high strength and wear resistance. There are specific requirements of low-temperature strength for northern and Siberian railroads operating under –40 degrees centigrade in wintertime. Prevailing mountains and hills is another Russian geographical peculiarity. Curved sections there have small radius and, thus, their supporting parts should be constructed only with rails having heads of altered profile and increased hardness. All these are products of the highest quality.
Until recently Russia used an outdated standard, which did not provide for making rails of this kind. The new standard, which has been in effect since July 1, 2001, has established the following rails’ gradation: category B includes rails of the highest quality, categories Ò1 and Ò2 are for rails with increased heat-hardening and category Í covers rails, which are not heat-hardened. Rails of the highest category should meet tougher requirements of metal additions content: sulfur and phosphorus should not exceed 0.025 %, there should be no more than 0.005% of aluminum and 0.002% of oxygen. There must be from 0.4% to 0.6% of chromium. The minimum ultimate strength is set at a higher level than for rails of the first category amounting to 132 kilogram-force/mm2 and rail straightness deviation should not be over 0.3 mm for every 1.5 m.
Russian NTMK and KMK make rails, the quality of which does not go beyond requirements of category T1. The customer is not satisfied with it and the railroads ministry has to make import purchases. Before rails are laid on the railroad bed, they are tested at the Experimental railroad ring in Sherbinka near Moscow. There a testing is done on rails made by NTMK, KMK, Voest-Alpine, Sogerall, Nippon Steel and other companies. Test results show that resources of the best Russian rails are 80 %-exhausted after passing through 500 million tons of gross freight. The same figure for rails of Japanese and French makers equals 1 000 million tons of gross freight or twice over.
At the end of the 1990s the decrease in quality of Russian heat-hardened rails of the first category took place. As deputy minister of railroads Victor Semenov says, in 1999 107.000 rails were removed because they failed to meet quality requirements including about 17.000 of them because of contact fatigue, over 15.000 rails due to premature side wear and approximately 5.000 in view of cracks in rail web. That is why, railroad workers are forced to do flaw detection of rails more often than their foreign colleagues. Experts from the Arthur Andersen auditing company determined that in Russia each kilometer of railroad track requires 5 times more expenses than in the U.S. One of the main reasons for that is rail quality, which does not meet modern standards.

In the 1990s a complex modernization of the rails production was started at NTMK. But the mill’s former heads failed to provide needed financial resources. The equipment replacement works were delayed. Construction of a heating furnace costing about $20 million became the last implemented project, which took 5 years. There was no money for other projects.
The Kuznetsk integrated iron-and-steel mill, another rail maker, got even more troubles. The steel-melting production there was not reconstructed for a long time. Upgrading of rail metallurgic quality was partly done through improving the technology of steel deoxidation. But works to reconstruct the head part of the rail-and-beam shop were not completed. A complex re-equipment program was needed to transfer to modern technologies.

N O W In March 2002 the interdepartmental Rail commission held its session at the Kuznetsk integrated iron-and-steel mill to discuss questions of upgrading the quality and operation of rails and rail fasteners. The session’s participants noted that metallurgists at both KMK and NTMK succeeded in using the new state standard for railroad rails and improved the quality of their products. Stanislav Rubchuk, who heads the department of railroads and structures at the ministry of railroads, called making rails of electric furnace steel at KMK a technological breakthrough. Yuri Zverev from KMK pointed out that the introduction of differentiated prices for rails with upgraded consumer properties served as an incentive for it. The Rail commission recommended the Kuznetsk integrated iron-and-steel mill to completely switch over to making all rails of continuously cast bars by the end of 2002.

The situation started to change, when a new owner, the EvrazHolding integrated company, took over ÊÌÊ and NTMK. The mills’ management was replaced. Together with the Holding’s leaders new managers worked out a modern engineering strategy.
NTMK’s 5-year program covers all main process stages. The technical condition of the converter production today already corresponds to the world standards. Steel, which is melted by duplex process, is distinguished for its purity, high physical and mechanical properties. What is more, it is melted of vanadium-containing iron ore. In 2001 production of patterned bars for the rail-and-beam shop started at the continuous casting machine. One more bar continuous casting machine with a ladle-to-furnace and vacuum-degassing devices is planned to be installed soon. A sulfur removal section will also be set up. The rail-and-beam shop will get a new modern equipment for finishing rails. There are plans to change the technology of hardening. On the whole implementation of these measures will allow to make NTMK’s products competitive on the Russian and foreign markets.
As far as KMK is concerned, this integrated mill, one of the oldest in Russia (built over 70 years ago), is in fact bankrupt and can not go on operating as an integrated enterprise. In order to keep up the basic production capacities and, thus, existing jobs EvrazHolding has started restructuring KMK after getting an approval from the region’s administration. There are five subsidiaries being formed now including Relsy KMK joint-stock company. This will continue to be the key direction of its activities in the future.
An engineering modernization will begin following structural changes. Reconstructing the electric furnace steel and rail-and-beam production capacities will be implemented at the first stage, which is planned to last till 2005. Works on the head part of the rail-and-beam shop are to be completed and the technological cycle will, thus, be closed. A new technology of rail finishing will crown the rail-rolling process stage. Yuri Zverev, KMK’s manager responsible for external operations, thinks that after all these works are completed, the mill will be able to fully meet volume and quality requirements of its chief customer, the ministry of railroads.
Leaders of the EvrazHolding managing company are also sure that programs of modernizing rail production capacities at both mills will be completely implemented. Such a vast country as Russia should possess a powerful rail production as required by principles of its economic and strategic security.