Uzbek Metallurgical Plant

(full name, V. I. Lenin Uzbek Metallurgical Plant), the first metallurgical plant in the Uzbek SSR, located in the city of Bekabad, Tashkent Oblast, on the Syr Darya River.

The Uzbek Metallurgical Plant processes scrap metal collected in Middle Asia. Construction of the plant was begun in 1943. The first open-hearth furnace was put into operation in 1944, the second in 1945, and the third in 1949. The model 300 light-section rolling mill went into service in October 1946, and the model 700 sheet rolling mill was put into operation in May 1949. The open-hearth section attained its design capacity in 1950, as did the rolling section in 1951. In 1962 a continuous steel-casting installation was put into service; this installation casts one-third of all the steel smelted at the plant. By the mid-1970’s, the output of the metallurgical sections exceeded the design capacity by a factor of three.

The plant’s products are used by machine-building enterprises and construction organizations. In 1974 the plant began manufacturing enamelware. During the tenth five-year plan (1976–80) the plant was expanded by the addition of a new electric steel-smelting section, new rolling-mill sections, and auxiliary sections.

Service personnel for the plant’s metallurgical and other units are trained at enterprises in the Urals and in Siberia. Specialists from the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR rendered valuable assistance in setting up, repairing, and operating the plant’s facilities.