POSTWAR STEEL INDUSTRY PROGRESSES; PLANTS STRESS ECONOMY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320930-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 930
• Publication Date: July 13, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION SECRET S105
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Iron and steel
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
12 Apr - 17 May 1950
7X11 OOCINSNT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING TN! NATIONAL DEFENSE
or THS 111110 STATES 11n11 THE MEANING or IS1IONAOa ACT of
I. S. C.. III AND SE. AS AMENDED. In TRANSMISSION 00 THE NIFEUTI01
OF m CONnPU IN ANY MANNER TO AN IINAITNOIISID PINSON IS PRO-
11LT10 sT LII. 11FRODICTION of THIS FORM Is PSOIIIITII.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. 1Bj Jul 1950
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
POSTWAR STEEL INDUSTRY PROGRESSES;
PLANTS STRESS ECONOMY
EASTERN METALLURGY EXPANDS -- Pravda, No 135, 15 May 50
During the war years, pra'dcuction of pig iron in the East increased 58 per-
cent over 1940, steel 56 percent, rolled metal 57 percent, and iron pipe 430
percent. On the basis of the Ural and Kuznetsk metallurgical unit, new coal
and iron deposits were developed, and conditions for more effective specializa-
tion and cooperation, of both enterprises and economic regions, were created in
the East. The leading enterprises of this unit, once based on Ural ore and
Kuznetsk coal,?are now in a greater measure using local raw materials and fuel.
The metallurgical industry of West Siberia is utilizing local ore in ever larger
quantities, and the requirements of the Ural industry for fuel are being covered
to a considerable degree by coal mined in the Urals and Karaganda.
The industrial capacity of the eastern regions has increased sharply during
the postwar Five-Year Plan and has served as the material foundation for recon-
struction of the economy of the western regions of the Union. Also in the post-
war period, the importance of the eastern regions in the production of metal and
output of coal has increased even more. The eastern regions have been called
upon to play a tremendous role in meeting the future task, outlined by Stalin in
1946, of producing 60 million tons of steel and 50 million tons of pig iron per
year.
REVIEWS POSTWAR GAINS -- Sovetskaya Estoniya, No 88, 12 Apr 50
In 1940, the USSR produced 18.3 million tone of steel, 15 million tons of
pig iron, and, 13.1 million tons of rolled metal. By that year, the production
of metal in the East had considerably exceeded all Russian production in 1913.
During 1941 - 1942, 61 blast furnaces, 225 open-hearth furnaces, 174 rolling
mills, and 131 coke batteries .were moved from the South and partially from
the, Center. The Five-Year Plan provides for an increase of 35 percent over the
prewar level of ferrous metal production, i.e., 192 million tons of pig iron
25.4 million tons of steel, and 17.8 million" tons, of rolled products. To accom-
plish these ends, plants of the South had to be rebuilt, Ural, Siberian, and
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Central Asia industry expanded, and plants built in regions which never before
had metallurgical production. These tasks are being met successfully. In
1949, the government increased the quarterly plan quotas, but these augmented
plans were met by the industry. The industry produced considerable quantities
of ferrous and nonferrous metals and iron pipe above the 1949 plan. The vol-
ume of capital construction in the industry has risen steadily each year. In
1948, the volume of capital construction in metallurgy was 131 percent of 1947,
and in 1949, the volume increased 18 percent over 1948.
In the South, plants are not merely being restored but are undergoing ex-
tensive rebuilding and expansion, labor-consuming processes are being mecha-
nized, automatization is being introduced, and more modern equipment installed.
In this way, southern metallurgy is obtaining a higher technological basis than
it had before the war.
During the postwar period, a tremendous amount of work has been done to
mechanize labor-consuming processes in the ferrous metallurgy industry. Charg-
ing of the old blast furnaces has been mechanized in a number of southern
plants. (imeni Dzerzhinskiy, Yenakiyevo, imeni Voroshilov, and others), and
mixing yards have been mechanized. Labor-consuming processes at the Kuznetsk
and Magnitogorsk combines, at Makeyevka, and at several other plants have been
mechanized most extensively. Rolling production is now being equipped.with a
new rail and girder mill which tops all similar mills in its productivity and
its mechanization and automatized control.
At present, nearly 85 percent of all pig iron is produced in oblast fur-
naces having automatic blast regulation, and nearly 80 percent of all steel is
smelted in automatized open-hearth furnaces. In 1949, the metallurgical indus-
try exceeded the level established by the Five-Year Plan for production of iron
pipe in 1950, and in the fourth quarter 1949 production of rolled metal ex-
ceeded the 1940 level by 47 percent and steel smelting by 37 percent. The Kuz-
netsk Combine, best metallurgical plant in the USSR, fulfilled its Five-Year Plan
for steel and rolled products in 3 years and for pig iron in 31 years.
CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION UP -- Zarya Vostoka, No 89, 30 Apr 50
During 1949, capital construction in the metallurgical industry of the
Georgian SSR increased 43 percent over l98.
BUILD AZERBAYDZHAN PIPE PLANT -- Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, no 84, 28 Apr 50
A pipe rolling plant, one of the Five-Year Plan projects, is under con-
struction in Azerbaydzhan.
TOP PLANTS GET AWARDS -- Trud, No 110, 10 May 50; Pravda, No 132, 12 May 50
The following plants and shops of the Ministry of the Metallurgical Indus-
try were awarded transferable red banners of the Council of Ministers USSR and
first prizes in the socialist competition for the first quarter 1950: Ural Alu-
minum Plant, metallurgical plant of the "Severonikel l" Metallurgical Combine,
and others: the open hearth shop of the Petrovsk-Zabaykal'skiy plant in Chita
Oblast, coke shop of the Gubakha Coke Chemical Plant, and the Severoural'sk
Bauxite Mines.
The.following plants were awarded first prizes and transferable red ban-
ners of the?VTsSPS and of the Ministry of the Metallurgical Industry: Leningrad
Steel and Wire Plant imeni Mclotov, Debal'tsevo Machine-Building Plant, Moscow
Secondary Aluminum Plant, Chusovoy Ferroalloy Plant, Dinas Brick Plant imeni
Dzerzhinskiy, automobile transport management of the "Serveronikel'" Combine,
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"Nittis Kumuzzh'ye" Mine of 'the Severonikel " Combine, Pokrovskiy Mechanized
Timber center, railroad shops of the Rutchenkov Coke-Chemical Plant and the
Karabash Copper Smelting Plant, and the capital construction division of the
Mine Administration imeni Karl Libknekht.
The victors in the socialist competition represent the best of the en-
terprises which have fulfilled all conditions of the competition. The lead-
ing enterprises have had to overcome difficulties, and while working under
similar conditions as other enterprises, were able to attain the highest per-
formance indexes. Publication of the results of the competition shows that
there are still serious deficiencies in the work of certain branches of in-
dustry. In the heavy-machine building industry, for example, no prizes were
awarded as a result of the first quarter work of the industry and its plants.
The "Uralmash" Plant completed only 83.9 percent of the plan for production
of rolling mill equipment. The Novokramatorsk Plant in Kramatorsk completed
only 94.2 percent of the plan for output of metallurgical equipment.
RISING COSTS CAUSE CONCERN -- Trud, No 116, 17 May 50
The Five-Year Plan calls for an increase of 35 percent in the production
of ferrous metals over the prewar level. The adoption of progressive norms
for utilization of equipment and improvement in the technology and organiza-
tion of production enabled the industry in 1949 to increase the production
output over 1948. In the fourth quarter 1949, the prewar levels for average
daily smelting of pig iron and steel and output of rolled metal and iron pipe
were exceeded.
This year, the metallurgists propose to decrease consumption of raw ma-
terials, fuel, power, and auxiliary materials.in order to decrease production
costs further. Consumption coefficients established for 1950 demand the
strictest economytin all processes and by all enterprises. The plants still
have great untapped reserves, as 'the results of the first-quarter 1950 plan
indicate. Several plants have not yet started the economy drive for decrease
in production costs, and a number of enterprises, because of ineffective win-
ter preparations, failed to meet the state plan. This is one reason why pro-
duction costs went above plan. Certain enterprises, although meeting the con-
ditions for the All-Union Socialist Competition, did not make the planned
above-plan savings by decreasing their costs. Thus, when the results of the
first-quarter competition were announced,,,they were not awarded the red banners
or the prizes. The Magnitogorsk Combine failed to give the state considerable
sums of above-plan profits. The Kuznetsk Combine decreased costs only 7.4 per-
cent instead of the planned 9.3 percent; the Makeyevka Plant, 13.9 percent in-
stead of 22.9 percent; and "Zaporozhstal'," 5.5 percent instead of 10 percent..
Consumption of molten pig, coke, fuel, and other materials exceeded the
established norms. The Makeyevka Plant consumed 67 more kilograms of coke
per ton of pig iron than the norm; "Zaporozhstal'," 25 kilograms; and the
Plant imeni Petrovskiy, 66 kilograms. At "Azovstal l" consumption of fuel ex-
ceeded the norm by 16 kilograms and at the Plant imeni Petrovskiy by 20 kilo-
grams per ton of pig iron. The norms for consumption of molten pig were also
substantially exceeded by these enterprises. This waste is explained in many
cases by the violation of correct technological procedures. The result was a
failure to meet the plan for decreased production costs and failure to provide
the state with many millions of rubles in above-plan accumulations..-
Consumption norms are still not being emphasized strongly enough in the
plants. The ministry and main administrations are extremely tardy-in deliver-
ing the norms, and directors of plants do not then immediately refer them to
workers and engineers. The shops of Magnitogorsk Combine did not get the
norms for consumption of raw materials for the second quarter until 19 April,
and Serp i molot" until 20 April. The steel wire shops still do not have the
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fixed norms for '.he second quarter. More than one half of the plants under
"Glavtrubostall" were not given their consumption coefficients until 6 May.
This factor hindel?= the drive for reduction in costs. At the Chelyabinsk
Pipe-Rolling Plant; workers and production directors do not know how large
quantities of mater`..ls and fuel they are allowed to expend. Many workers
are not advised of consumption norms, which are known only to the bookkeepers.
These facts point up the tremendous significance of the drive recently
started by the three Magnitogorsk Combine workers for a competition to de-
crease costs. They hav.? pledged to save, per ton of steel,-5 percent of me-
tallic charge, 5 percent of refractories, 2 kilograms of furnace repair ma-
terials, 10 kilograms of :'uel, and 5 percent of fixed costs. They have
pledged to produce above the year plan 12,000 tons of steel, including 1,000
tons by using saved materia:.s and fuel. Other metallurgical enterprises have
followed suit, including the blast-furnace workers of the Novo-Tagil'skiy
Plant, the Dnepropetrovsk metallurgical plants the Kuznetsk, Stalino, Makey-
evka, Pervoural'sk, and other enterprises. The combine has organized account-
ing procedures so that each worker will know the consumption per machine shift.
Training of workers in economic- was given throughout the combine and lectures
were read. Workers at blast fur:iace No 2 overexpended coke in the first quar-
ter when they were not cognizant >f consumption norms, whereas in April, under
the new competition, they saved 4 ;.ilograms per ton of pig iron. The combine
is now preparing to apply cost accounting to the basic equipment and sections.
URAL PLANTS ADOPT COST ACCOUNTING -- Pravda, No 131, 11 May 50
In 1949, the Verkh-Isetskiy Metallurgical Plant obtained 5.4 million ru-
bles in savings above plan from decreased production costs as a result of in-
creasing and developing its intraplant cost-accounting system. The turnover
of working capital was speeded by 11.6 days, and utilization of capital re-
sources was improved greatly. In 1950 the plant is topping even last year's
success. While exceeding the first-quarter plan, the workers have already
saved 390,000 rubles this year. The Novo-Tagil'skiy Metallurgical Plant and
the Pervoural'sk New Pipe Plant imeni Stalin have also considerably decreased
production costs both in 1949 and in the first quarter 1950. Directors of
the Verkh-Isetskiy, Ni.zhne-Serginskiy, and Alapayevsk metallurgical plants are
successfully using the cost-accounting method of calculating production costs
and have established extremely stringent'control of the ruble.
The Verkhnyaya Salda Plant, on the other hand, does not have cost account-
ing in its shops. The system of sanctions for failure to meet plans is used
weakly and ineffectively. In 1549 and in the first quarter 1950, the plant
failed to meet the plan, realized no savings from decreased costs, but rather
overexpended a million rubles.
The Verkh-Isetskiy Plant has even gone one step further by introducing
cost accounting for each worker or brigade. All three shifts in the sheet
bar mill shop have converted to cost accounting, so that the cost of the prod-
uct can be determined for each shift. Substantial success has been attained
in this way. Where individual, brigade, or shift cost accounting becomes too
complex because of the auxiliary services involved, such as in operating open
hearths, blast furnaces, etc., a cost-accounting plan is set up for each fur-
nace, as has been done in the Verkh-Isetskiy Plant. The plan specifies the
volume of steel production and the norms for expenditures. The production cost
is figured according to actual norms and planned prices, while total plant or
total shop expenditures are not incli 'd in the calculation of production costs
for each furnace. This type of accounting was introduced in the fourth quarter
1949, and results have been outstanding.
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