On the 1-st of December Ekaterinburg Production Site of OMZ-SpecialSteel Ltd. was spun off to form a separate legal entity - Uralmash-SpecialSteels Ltd. The managment decision in question is aimed at increasing of economic efficency in metallurgical business activity of OMZ Corporation as a whole. At present three enterprises: OMZ-SpecialSteel, Uralmash-SpecialSteels and Scoda Steel form OMZ metallurgical division.

November

For structure optimization, on the basis of the equipment transferred from Izhorskiye Zavody OMZ-SpecialSteel formed Machining and Heat Treatment Production Department.                                                                                                                        Its capacities provide a means for heat treatment of blanks in vertical position as well as furnish screw-cutting lathes, vertical lathes, deep boring mills for machining of pieces. Formation of the new production department will allow to increase output of products of higher processing standard.

Jointly OMZ-SpecialSteel and Uralmashzavod participated in the major Russian Metallurgical Exhibition "METAL EXPO 2004" held for the tenth time last year. Company representatives were awarded a Cup "For the Best Exposition" and a medal for making an individual contribution on exhibition development.

October

Representation of Det Norske Veritas Certification Agency awarded a Certificate of Approval (No. AMM-1945, validity - till 30.06.2008) to OMZ-SpecialSteel as a manufacturer of carbon steel and stainless steel castings weighting up to 37 t. The former Certificate of Approval awarded in 2002 was unique to production of carbon castings.

September

VIII International Industrial Forum "Russian Manufacturer" was held from 27 to 30 September 2004 in Saint-Petersburg. OMZ-SpecialSteel togethe with Izhorskiye Zavody, OMZ-Instrument, Komplekt-Atom-Izhora participated in the Forum with the OMZ Corporate Stand.

OMZ-SpecialSteels specialists took part in the exhibition "Urals Metallurgy and Machine-Building" held from 21 to 24 September, 2004 in Ekaterinburg.

August

OMZ-SpecialSteel received a letter of appreciation from Mr. I.V.Gorynin - a Member of Russian Academy of Science - General Director of "Prometey" Central Research Institute of Structural Materials for efficient and high-quality execution of a very impotant order for a lot of two-layer steel plates made of new and extremly sophisticated composite - АБ-2П.

July

In collaboration with Prometey-Atom Scientific Centre of Structural Materials specialists of OMZ-Special Steels Metallurgy Department have developed a process of production of tubeplate billets from ХН32Т-ВД alloy on order of Mashzavod ZiO-Podolsk, whereby an ingot of 42.8t mass has been cast from the mentioned alloy for  the first time in the world practice.

June

An Interdepartmental Comission held a meeting at Federal State Department of Prometey Central Scientific Research Institute with the participation of OMZ-Special Steels reprezentatives, Customer's Acceptance Inspection, Head Engineering Institutes. The Comission approved technology for production of stainless steel forgings, developed by specialists of OMZ-Special Steels Metallurgy Department for manufacturing of lifting column devices on serial orders of Russian Federation Ministry of Defence.

May

From 31st May till 2nd June OMZ-Special Steels reprezentatives attended the 2-nd   International Metallurgical Summit (Moscow) where situation at word and Russian markets, globalization tendency of  metallurgical industry was discussed. Russia was reprezented by nearly all the leading nonferrous and ferrous metallurgical companies.

A high power-factor transformer has been connected to DSP-50 electric arc furnace, enabling to reduce melting time by 12-15% and to increase the quantity of melted steel.

April

April 21-24 OMZ - Special Steels took part in the Exhibition "All Russia Brand (the third Millenium). Mark Quality of the 21-st century" that was held in Moscow. Three types of products were submitted for contest: forged blanks for shafts, molds for centrifugal casting of pipes, two-layer and three-layer plates. All products received awards of Golden Mark Quality.

OMZ - Special Steels representatives visited Industrial Fair in Hannover that was held April 19-24. "HANNOVER MESSE" is a prominent event in the life of industrial circles of Western Europe. There were 3600 exhibitioners and 300000 visitops at the Fair. OMZ - Special Steels delegation exchanged information with business representatives from Denmark, Spain, Germany, Slovenia and other countries.

OMZ - Special Steels started industrial production of two-layer plates of new composition consisting of high-strenght weldable steel grade 09ХН3МД and austenite class stainless steel grade 08Х18Н10Т. The above two-layer plates are designed for manufacture of Naval equipment.

April 13 OMZ - Special Steels representatives took part in a meeting of metallurgical section of OMZ Scientific-and-Technological Council. Discussed were prospects of development of semiproducts of new special steels and particularly heavy and super heavy forgings for power generation industry including nuclear power industry. In view of forthcoming merger of OMZ Corporation and Power Machines Concern not only representatives of OMZ participated in the seminar but also those from Elektrosila and LMZ. Specialists from TsNII KM Prometey, TsNIITMash, Polzunov TsKTI and Turboatom were also invited.

March

On March, 15, in compliance with the order of Director General precision casting workshops, located at Ekaterinburg industrial site, were abolished because of termination of equipment rent.

On March, 15-19, OMZ – Special Steels participated in the exhibition “Metallurgy. Foundry practice 2004” (Saint Petersburg). During the exhibition meetings with stable as well as new customers were held, film about the production facilities and presentation about technological capabilities were shown.

February

The representatives of OMZ – Special Steels visited two Indian exhibitions: IMTEX^2004 – Indian Machine Tool Exhibition and DEFEXPO INDIA 2004 – International Land & Naval Systems Exhibition. They held meetings and negotiated with representatives of Indian enterprises, showed video presentations, considered applications for production.

OMZ – Special Steels has successfully introduced a new steel-making practice of high-strength hull steel AK-SV for rolled sheets production. The novelty is cancellation of electro-slag remelting due to technological advancement of steel out-of-furnace refinement and vacuum-treatment. The optimal technology has been worked out in collaboration with Prometey Central Research Institute of Structural Materials.