CJSC Metallurgical Plant Krasny Oktyabr, located in Volgograd, until recently, was the largest producer of special steels in southern Russia. This is the only supplier of nuclear reactor vessels for nuclear submarines of the Russian Navy. In 2017, the company was declared bankrupt, the dismantling of equipment began. Unique production is at stake.
Creature
At the end of the XIX century, the Russian Empire was experiencing an economic upsurge. At a rapid pace, metallurgy developed. European bankers and industrialists reached out to establish trade relations and open factories. One of them was the Paris banker T. Lombardo.
The French businessman did a serious job analyzing the Russian market and determined that the most profitable activity was metal smelting. A joint-stock company was organized, at the expense of which in the city of Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) the construction of the future Red October Metallurgical Plant began.
Rapid development
The first factory plate was laid solemnly on April 30, 1897. Production facilities quickly grew like mushrooms:
- casting;
- mechanical;
- sheet rolling sections;
- administrative building;
- water pumping.
Basically - the open-hearth workshop - there were four 20-ton furnaces, three 30-ton, and several 5-ton for delicate work. Even its own railway bridge was erected.
According to experts, the metallurgical plant "Red October" at the dawn of his youth was the most equipped enterprise in Europe. The labor there was manual and very hard. Cranes appeared only years later. Castings were smelted from cast iron and steel , rails were made, "trading" and roofing iron. In the 1910s, it was one of the best, most prosperous plants in southern Russia.
Time for a change
The revolution and the war that followed led to a halt in production. Capacity restoration began only in the early 1920s. December 5, 1922 the company was renamed into the metallurgical plant "Red October". In 1926, output was on par with the pre-revolutionary level. In 1939, the collective was awarded the Order of Lenin for the early execution of the state plan.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the importance of production has grown incredibly. Factory workers produced more than 9% of all steel in the USSR, while many brands were unique. Moreover, the work was carried out even after the Nazis entered Stalingrad. Only when fighting broke out in neighboring streets, the staff was evacuated. By the way, for many months of fighting, the Red October metallurgical plant was never completely captured by the enemy, remaining undefeated. But still, as a result of the shelling, little was left of him.
For the good of the world
No sooner had the dust settled after the Germans were expelled from the liberated Stalingrad, when in the summer of 1943 a revival of production began. Surprisingly, the first smelting was already carried out on July 31, 1943, but months of the selfless labor of the workers were required to completely restore the plant.
In 1949, the process was complemented by an electric steel furnace delivered by reparation from Austria. Thus, the beginning of electrometallurgy was laid. The 1950s were held under the banner of modernization and production growth. This time included the commissioning of peeling and sheet rolling workshops, a site for the repair of metallurgical furnaces. In 1951, a high-speed method of smelting, awarded with government awards, was introduced. In 1963, a calcareous calcination site was launched, two years later a thermal workshop. 12.24.1964, the 100 millionth ton of steel was smelted.
At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the second large-scale reconstruction began in the recent history of the Red October Volgograd Metallurgical Plant. One of the "pearls" of the enterprise was the unique for the USSR electroslag remelting complex, introduced in 1974. By the mid-1980s, technological capacities made it possible to smel 2 million tons of special steels and produce about 1.5 million rolled metal annually.
Recent story
In the 1990s, the company continued to develop. The big event was the introduction of the 2000 series hot plate mill. In 1994, a large-sorting and harvesting mill was launched. New times required new management systems. In order to improve customer service, the Trading House "Red October Metallurgical Plant" was created.
The 2000s were marked by a series of reorganizations and a change of ownership. In 2002, the company entered into a number of strategic partnership agreements with leading metal processing and machine-building enterprises in the region. Including agreements were concluded with the Volgograd Tractor and Tube Rolling Plants. By 2008, Red October has mastered the production of 600 steel grades, including rare and unique ones. In some periods, its share in the domestic market of special steels amounted to 30%. The workforce exceeded 8000 people.
Unfortunately, during the crisis years 2008-2009, production fell fourfold. Creditors went to court to declare the plant bankrupt. External management has been introduced. Although work was resumed, sanctions imposed in 2014 completely undermined the company's operations. In December 2017, the dismantling and cutting of equipment began. The number of workers dropped to 4,000. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the enterprise is the only manufacturer of high-strength nuclear reactor vessels for nuclear submarines, 8 of which are in production. The defense order was on the verge of collapse. The federal authorities and law enforcement agencies became interested in the situation; an investigation is currently underway.