Last week Severstal, the Russian steel giant, announced it will invest this year 6.7 billion rubles (roughly $100 million) in IT and digital projects, up 7% from 2019.
The group’s projects for 2020 span from “new solutions for managing material flows and optimizing the quality of finished products” to building “new technological networks to improve the quality of data transmission [and address legal requirements].” The group will also continue developing its ERP business management systems as well as its online store.
In terms of digitalization, Severstal will “continue to develop and implement intelligent solutions [to] detect and predict future product defects, issue recommendations on the production process, and increase production volumes.”
Artificial intelligence will be used to automate the related control processes. As an example, Severstal cites the use of a neural network to “recognize certain defects on metal sheets.” The system was introduced last year in one of the cross-cutting unit of a metal finishing shop in the Cherepovets metallurgical plant.
Among other digital solutions, the group is using a mathematical model to automate the middle section of a continuous pickling unit.
According to Severstal CFO Alexey Kulichenko, the group “doubled [its] investment in IT and digitalization over the past three years,” which provided “a significant positive economic impact.”
Open innovation and international investments
Severstal’s innovation activities have an international dimension. Just weeks ago, the group took part in an equity funding round for Dutch company Airborne, a global leader in digital automation platforms for the production of composite parts and products to automate advanced composites manufacturing.
“Working together with Severstal’s technical development and quality department, Airborne will examine the potential of integrated solutions based on composites and steel, and Severstal will offer its clients the opportunity to test these integrated solutions,” Severstal explained.
Last year Severstal announced the launch of an open innovation portal made available in both Russian and English languages. The site features Severstal’s existing initiatives for cooperating with startups, innovative teams and industry experts from across the world. These include the Severstal tech park, a variety of technological and R&D challenges and the Steel Tech startup accelerator.
No less than 200 Russian startups applied to this acceleration process last year. As a result, the group says it is cooperating with nine of them. An Open Day will be held on March 11 in Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow.
Severstal also launched two internationally-oriented investment vehicles : Severstal Digital Businesses and Severstal Ventures. Among the latter’s portfolio companies is a US company called Modumetal, which claims it is “reinventing metals to dramatically outperform traditional steels and industrial alloys.”
