Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) plans to launch its new blast furnace No. 7 in September this year. The company is investing Ruble 43 billion ($1.488 billion) in the construction of the new blast furnace.

Charging for the first melting has already started at BF No. 7. The total capacity of the blast furnace is 9,400 mt of pig iron per day or 3.4 million mt of pig iron per year.

BF No. 7 will allow NLMK to increase its pig iron output by 33 percent. It is expected that in 2012 the pig iron output of the company will reach 12 million mt and that its crude steel production will rise by 36 percent, from 9.1 million mt to 12.4 million mt.