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Soviet Union [USSR] Metallurgical Combine Locations and Major Producers
As production capacity has expanded, iron and steel production
operations have consolidated in large-scale facilities, designated
as combines. Among them was the Magnitogorsk metallurgical combine
in the Urals, which in 1989 was the largest Soviet metallurgical
combine. It produced nearly 16 million tons of metal annually.
Long-term plans targeted Magnitogorsk for complete modernization of
casting operations in the 1990s. Other important metallurgical
centers in the Urals were at Chelyabinsk and Nizhniy Tagil. The
Ukrainian Republic had major combines at Krivoy Rog, Zhdanov,
Zaporozh'ye, and Makeyevka. The Cherepovets combine was north of
Moscow, the Lipetsk and Oskol combines were south of Moscow, and
the Orsk-Khalilovo combine was at the southern end of the Urals.
The European sector was the traditional location of Soviet
metallurgy because of available labor and materials. Newer
metallurgical centers at Karaganda (in the Kazakh Republic) and the
Kuzbass (see Glossary) were in parts of the Asian Soviet Union
where coking coal was readily available. Nevertheless,
metal-consuming industries and known iron ore reserves remained
mainly west of the Urals, and major expansion of the metallurgy
industry east of the Urals was considered unlikely in the near
future.
Data as of May 1989
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