OMK Vyksa Steel, open hearth steel shop

The small town of Vyksa is associated with steel production for more than 200 years. First primitive hammers existed at the beginning of 18th century already thanks to Oka river, deep forests and rich iron deposits.
The history of current plant VMZ (Выксунский металлугический завод) dates back to 1757, when the first mill was founded by Batashev brothers. In 1799 the first blowing engine supporting two blast furnaces was put into operation.
The production of steel pipes, for which Vyksa is known today, started in 1826.
In 1889, the plants were bought and upgraded by an english industrialist A. Lessing. But his business was nationalized soon after, in 1914.

The open-hearth steel mill with two 250 t siemens-martin furnaces was put into operation in 1933 and is still active today. During the Soviet era, VMZ became one of the largest steel tube and rail wheels manufacturer in whole Europe. It is part of OMK group (Объединённая металлургическая компания) since 1999.

In 2000 a new welding plant for large diameter pipes (so-called "Russian size") was put into operation and a new electric steel plant with continuous hot strip mill followed in 2011.

Keywords: vyksa, omk, United Metallurgical Company, russia, sssr, stahlwerk, steelworks, industrial photography, industriekultur, industriální fotografie, siemens-martinska ocelarna, open-hearth steel, martinská pec, metalurgie, hutnictví, industriální architektura

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