Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Metallurgist Day by giving start to a number of metallurgical plants throughout Russia, reported TASS July 15. These may be new or reconstructed plants. Metallurgy—the art of obtaining ore, melting/smelting, and processing metals to a higher form— has been known to mankind from the seventh millennium BCE, and indispensable for an economy’s development.
Russia usually celebrates Metallurgist Day the third Sunday of July each year, in each town or city that has a metallurgical plant, a holiday not common to other nations, but pointing to the value that Russia places on this science, and the building of such plants and physical economy.
On the eve of Metallurgist Day, Putin “gave official start,” via announcing online the openings of facilities in the following:
• In the Donetsk People’s Republic, after a long downtime, blast furnace No. 5 was put into operation and its overhaul was carried out. The launch of the furnace will make it possible to produce an additional 1 million tons of steel per year. The Yenakiyevo plant produces commercial cast iron, fittings and rolled metal products, which are used, in particular, in shipbuilding.
