Saldinsky Metalurgichesky Zavod
The standing out monument of abandoned blast furnace in Nizhnyaya Salda town remembers almost 250 years of iron and steel making here.
The works were established in 1756 by famous industrialist Nikita Demidov as one of the Tagil ironworks units. After commissioning the puddling furnace the plant became one of the largest steel producer in Ural. The first blast furnace heated by cowpers was constructed in 1871. Production consists of large varienty of rolled steel with domination of rails.
In 1875 the very first Bessemer converter with open hearth steel furnaces were put into operation. After this step the old puddling furnaces were shutdown.
Between 1896-1901 new and together the largest russian rail rolling mill was constructed the hot end underwer some major modernizations. The capacity of open hearth furnaces was enlarged to 50 tons each.
The production was ceased during the civial war due to lack of raw materials. Blast furnace was restarted in 1924. During the 2nd World War special steels and nickel alloys for military needs were produced here.
In 1956 a new blast furnace is built (still standing today) and in 1975 the rolling mill was modernized.
The steel production in open hearth furnaces was shutdown in 1983 for good, the blast furnace followed in 2002 after the bankrupt.
Today the mill is part of EVRAZ company which is still running the heavy section rolling mill here.