INFORMATION CONCERNING THE ILICH METALLURGICAL PLANT NO 104, MARIUPOL, USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600050396-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2011
• Sequence Number: 396
• Publication Date: April 2, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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s o
all production; that technical engineers never a very iscuss d the results-
of their work in their respective shops and sections; that a strict
system of passes, good for one specified shop and one specified gate
was used and finally, because of the atmosphere of constant fear among
the people, curiosity is discouraged.
2. The Ilich Plant no 104 is a complete production plant. It has blast
furnaces, Martin furnaces (open hearth shops), rolling mills and
thermic treatment (processing) shops. It is one of the beet if not
the beet) metallurgical plants in the Soviet Union.
it was, and probably still is, the major mil
faeturiae armor st..l iry plant manu-
may be the la
plant manufacturing both heavy armor plate steel for naval shies andst
light armor-plate steel for tanks. There were between '1500 and
two thousand workers and about five hundred engineers an" technicians
at this plant. Prior to 1937 the plant belonged to "Trubostal" (Steel
Piping Administration). It was transferred in 1937 to the newly
established People's Commissariat for Defense. Later on, whenthe
problem of building a powerful navy became the issue of the day, it
vas transferred to the People's Commissariat of Ship Building Industry.
3. The Ilich Plant was to play an important part in this new naval program
for the following reasons:
a. The Plant had relatively now equipment already designed for
similar production
r
p
ocessing. There were two emu-capacity
blast furnaces with auxiliary equipment (Cowper stoves and
blowing machines) required to produce high TAlity cast iron
for manufacturing steel. There was a new Martin furnace shop,
a Martin furnace Shop for acid steel and a shop for thermic
treatment with various tubs f
r -. -- -
o
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CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL,
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE 'AGEN6Y
INFORMATION REPORT
SUBJECT Information t oConcerning the
he Ilich Metallurgical
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF 0
REPORT
CD NO.
DATE DISTR.A A P R 1954
NO. OF PAGES 1
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
Ilich Metallurgical Plant No 104 may be sketchy. Itnisoduerto thehffact
that
in the
Soviet, the individual worker know
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was in good condition.
b. The p ant was menned by highly qualified workers, of which there was a
e in the Donets
Benin. There we
re at least five hundred highly
goal if
engineers and technicians. Being a milita
a priority in getting the beat specialists and then, oo, spit istsyed
who had a choice ethelists
abundance of foodp nPtheeareaei of resort-like life and the
4? n- The e plant
was located near the railroad station of Berm.. on the -_
ns north - on_ t on out oosettarate
Units: a fee Eaelosure (A o f Mariupol). It consisted of two separate
a. Metallurgical ln""i formerly belonged to the Nikopol-Mariupol Mining and
Company.
b. Plant "B", which was formerly the Joint-stock company, Russian Providence.
Plant A
5. In Plant A there was a blast'
o comoinea total of eight hundred tons (metric)-of~castniron per urnaces put
there were 250 "hot" (actual productiott 'da s peday.
t e annual production of foundry iron and cast ironpfor steel produetion?waihtwofore, year a
hundred thousand tone.
6. There were two Martin furnace shops in Plant A: the old and the new. The. old shop
had six furnaces, as follows:
yLWuaLioa or both ---- -vft WWSAWSlos cetifl-pd theaelaal - -
lbur htmdesd tbm,.arA ?.. %
s
Furnace -weight of one smelts per-day; smeltings.- 160 ttons
~ 75 ton per day: smeltings - 185 tons
Furnace 10- weight of one welt
g 75 .tone per day: smelting* - 18~
Daily Total 655 tons
(Annual Productions 655 tons x 240 tome or 157,000 tons.)
7. Fieuring a to~a~len yl Production of both old and new Martin furnace ihopsof
355 thousand 10% dsfretirs safe sf
was four per cent,,but often r..e~?~1oa (the official s3lowance
1SL.~1~set,..a
one
(Time lost - hot and cold - constituted at least 1/3 of the total; subsequently,
the furnaces worked not more than 240 days per
average daily Output of year. perrefore{ using an
m tr working days
820 tons and per ye7 ;' "a;$l~l out-
put of this shop was 196,800 tons (metric)).
The new Martin furnace 'ahoy with four furnaces:
Furnace - weight of one smelting - 50 tons-per day:
smelts
Furnace - weight of one rvsitiag 65 ag!,-.125 tons
-
ton
One Furnace - weight of one smelting - 65 tons per day: smeltings - 60 tons
Furnace - weight of one smelting - 65 tone per day: emeltinge - 160 tons
8 160 tone
Daily Total 820 t
me
s
Furnace - weight of one smelti ne ng - - 50 5o t tone per day: smeltings - 125 tons
8. The two Martin ic.
furnace shops ssaufsetu the folUMIng types, of stalls
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Furnace 1 - weight of one smelting - 50 tone per da :
p y' smeltinge - 125 tone
Furnace #2 - weight of one smelti
50 tons
lt ng -
per day. emeltings - 125 tons
Furnace 3 - weight of one s
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CONFIDKy1VTIAi;
-3-
ST-1; St-2; ST-3; ST-4; ST_5. ST-1 and ST-5 w
ere manufactured on
rare occasions only, while ST-3, rolled into sheets, accounted for
about 60% of the total of all the above types.
Auto
steel ID05 thin sheets and;1010. used 101mainlyD 1020;
by the and. auto 10and? tractor types were rolled into
foor industryy,
c. Steel for seawlees tubing; 145 and !D, used by the oil industry.
d. Cther types were made in small quantities. such as SW Co rows steel
(stainless);
rule, these two shops did not produce As a
any special types of steeel.
V. - steel was poured flto ~alds of the following shapes:
a. flat sheet
b. square
C. round
d. octahedral
The weight of the ingots varied from six hundred kg to 27 tons. These 27 ton
ingots were flattened until they were approximately 150-170 ma thick arid were
locomotive
chassis
sentto 109 end of 1looo olive plant for manufacturing carts for FD locomotives.
sent _s the L miof 1940 the new psi
the beginning is shoe- earn to ma n'-,=
9 ton (exant 1,+1 4-?--t- T?o re rowed and sub ected to thermic
treatment in'shop No 3.
a special steel containing about 2.4% of chrome, 0. nfckel and it tram
molybdenum. It was sent to Lenin
probably 0.44 of
rad
g
for testing
for gun turrets on naval ships. it was to be used
9. There were seven or eight rolling mills altogether in Sheet Rolling Mill shop
No 1 and Sheet Rolling Mill Shop No 2. The moPt powerful mill had a 1,100 mm
(diameter) roller and the least powerful, 650 mm. Sheet Rolling Mill No 3 (later
changed to So 8) was engaged in rolling KhKSQ and KITS and other special types of
steel. The work was all secret. KITS-thin was used for tank armor. The plates
were of various sizes, the most common being Ix 1 mm and was up to 10 an think_
KM-think ship armor was 20 to on -
-,_
th
10. The rate of detective production in Shop No 3 was very high. All
tested at the taniagrad test production was
grounds with natal artiltr..w. r_.?.:
re. Plant.
COWUNOM
e. A tuba sanutketuring shop which roads iYmssman sesralsp tubes
Part satoknoft N, it
byshsv Smug.. in 193e ail organised " a seeparagInLUy
pl
te
A
r
S Droduction !or
six or seven months was o~Yn0S.6jhop No 3 So some reason and
capacity.
~, (exact) of the total
U. Other buildings and shops in Plant A area were as follows:
,. Mechanical Shop Mo 1 where armor plates were processed; after thermic
treatment -they were bent, drilled, and shaped as required. There were
several tl.-eutttng machines in this shop for cutting armor plate in
one operation.
b. Mechanical Shop No 2 served mainly as a repair and maintenance shop.
c. A foundry shop took cars of the needs or the
orders from outside. glint and also f7iisd now
d. A w3,ding Shop (there my hive been two) for welding iron pipes.
aK~ll out --Y. v. vmgyn0ert.
st all a through the plate as if it were maps of butter".
~erieneed engineers were arrested i In 1937
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the latter part Of 1939 B- equipped lag mull with a diameter of 1,230 m
p No 3 was with a powerful prose
There wbrw .1nh+
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CONFIDENTIAL
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f. There was a furnace-charge'.'hop'(where charges were prepared). A
typical charge for a Martin furnace was prepared as follows:
1) Scrap iron (from junk yards and the rolling mills).
2 Liquid cast iron produced by the blast furnaces of the plant.
3) Specnlarcast iron (for the best type of steel) brought from
a plant atAlmuznaya.
4) Iron ore.. came exclusively fror.Zaporosbe..
5) Ferroalloy. from the Zaporoshe ferroalloy plant.
6) Ammonium, for deoxidation, came from a small ammonium plant
in Kharkov.
g. A transportation shop (for needs of plant).
h. A Firing Range located about six withfrom heavy the plant
machine gun open steppe.
Tank armor plate was tested here a gunn fire.
i. A new thermic treatment shop.
A s Kbeoren ~ they. were not in full Nn lh and
operation.' These two shops as full
u cons
~? su
Martin furnaces of the Kuibyshev plant vets constructed by prisoners
from Cam Staryy Krym).
k. Xnperimental shop. Included were:
1) Chemical laboratory
2) X-ray laboratory.
3) Matallographic laboratory.
4) Research groups for blast furnaces, Martin furnaces,. rolling
mills and silicate. The main task of these groups vas`to
reduce the very high percentage of defective production. They
were 'also responsible for making sure that instructions on the
"technological cards" (prescriptions for manufacturing new types
of steel) were cosplied with. A technician observer would be
shat to a particular shop. He made an accurate, minute.by
minute record of the whole technological process: &JA-?on th`e
basis of several such studies, would compile and'determine
the optimum conditions for given processes.' However, no
substantial results were obtained because aA a rule the.-shop
engineers would completely disregard the study.
1.. The Mariupol heat and power station vas located in -Plant A area.
12. Plant.B area was ands up as follows:
a. ls, each with a
spas/! capacity of 30 to 35 tons or a total of 150 to 175 tons. each
saelting required seven hours (with one hour between each two smaltings).
Thus- there were 2} osltings per day making a daily production.-total o2.
3T5 tons. Assualeg that tbsre ware 250 "hot" days a year, total annual
output should have been 99,750 teas. The percentage of defective pro.
dustioa- was sash lever in this shop than in those shed described and
the amua1 actual production figured about 90 thousad toot. This shop
bad a-ebseial "Chief Foremn" whose sole rsspoasibility es-.to,see that
the foram" were kept in top eodition. The furnace obarjs used was
of the highest gality and the purity of the astal ser posed was closely
inspected. nut and wall an
essa~ereial ypes. The work is,tiis 50X1-HUM
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shop was classified as the most secret project of the entire plant.
Even the shift engineers and foremen were not aware of the overall
the shop made various tvnea ~f+oe,
ey) f
e ro w.ngsren
(Fey) There was an electric-furnace with a
10 to 12 ton capacity in the shop, making steel fr the steel foundry.
b. Section mill shop. This shop had the following three section mills:
1. For rails and beams
2. Medium grade
3. For small-sized sheets ?~'.
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c. In Plant B area there rrpy also a dolomite shop and four batteries
of coke ovens (Konne type) with an annual output of not more than
250 thousand tons.
13. The Central Armor Laboratory No 2 (TaBL-2) attach-id to the Ilich Plant
was a bra
ch
f th
n
o
e Leningrad Research Institute No 78, The task of the
Leningrad Research Institute No 78 was to study and improve ship a r
rmo
plant. The branch at the Ilich Plant (TsBL-2) employed about fifty
persons, including some 15"engineers. There were also a maDAgpr, a chief
-
- -.,_- -_ .,.
All work was highly' 50X1-HUM
o hel e a i ivi ua researchers knew on'l
509gm.or early 1940.
There were also -11 capacity furnaces of 20 to.
two furnaces research work. One was of a capacity of 150 gm and 50X1-HUM
had a zirconium n ng, the other was for 20 gm and had quartz tubes.
(Incidentally, around 1936 mayor occurrences of zirconium ore were dis-
covered near the station of Volnovakh. Mining of the ore was highly
classified.
eB It-2
J ngineers and not
by shop engineers. Research was conducted in th
e Martinefurnace shop "B", 50X1-HUM
sheet rolling mill shop No 3, and in the special laboratories equipped.with
steel founding machines of various capacity. One of these furnaces
(capacity 20 kg) was received from the US in let 1
entire work done by the laboratory y o. portion of the
. Researchers conducted observations
in various shops of the methods and conditions used in smelting, rolling
and thermic treatment processes. Based on numerous observations, the most
favorable methods and conditions were determined. Initial stages of manu-
facture of new types of steel were supervised b T
16. In Senexal, TaBL-2 dealt with the following research problems:
a. Marovsrnt of steel for ship armor.
b. Substitution of the expensive non- rtala with mare economical.
metals.
c. redaction of the relatively high percentage of defective production.
tee to the follovingt poor results were
a. Lack of initiative. Norkars were afraid to be responsible in case
of fhilure. Svezything was therefore done only with the pas ission of
a superior, w5owas often more afraid. As a result -van aimor problems
had to be resolved by widtiar. 2"n a worker who showed tvc ma-ch
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