The furnaces of the ACINOX Las Tunas stainless-steel company, in this eastern Cuban province, heated up again on Wednesday night in what would be the prelude to the return of steel production after six months of inactivity, forced by the severe deficit in electricity generation suffered by the country.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- At the stroke of midnight on December 14, the characteristic sound of metal smelting was heard in the heart of the plant, as the entity confirmed from its official profile on social media; although it will still take several days for a pace to meet the quality requirements is reached.
"After six months of interruption, back in the battle, everyone eager to hear the sound of our electric arc furnace and produce steel for export and the 200-T Laminator," said Wilber Gómez Ávila, the director of the Steelworks base business unit.
This factory, alone, accounts for a third of all the electricity consumed by the Iron and Steel Business Group (GESIME, in Spanish) in a year, an amount that exceeds the electricity consumption of the rest of the Las Tunas territory by more than 20 gigawatts/hour in that same period. Therefore, when last July the lack of electricity became critical in the country, the production of carbon steel billets and corrugated bars of the same material was halted, to reduce the impact of this adverse situation in Cuban homes.
However, in all this time the plant's workshops did not remain completely inactive, as their workers appealed to alternative productions from the accumulated steel waste and other additional materials such as slag dust. They manufactured no less than 100 daily units of blocks and some 40 baby cots for the Neonatology and Postpartum wards of Las Tunas hospitals; as well as I.V. poles and footstools, which they donated to health facilities in this territory.
The possibility of ACINOX Las Tunas resuming its usual tasks would be excellent news for the Balcón del Oriente Cubano (Balcony of Eastern Cuba) since together with the Sugar Agribusiness and the Metal Structures Factory (METUNAS), it places among the companies that decide on the territorial economic balance.
Likewise, it would mean a breath of fresh air for investments and, in particular, housing construction for the whole nation, because the other Cuban steel plant, Antillana de Acero, is out of operations due to a deep investment process.
