Uzbekistan is implementing large-scale measures to digitalize its metallurgical industry and widely adopt artificial intelligence. These technologies aim to reduce costs, increase productivity, and cut energy consumption.
The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine has already shown initial results. Installing an online monitoring system on dump trucks and selecting optimal routes using AI saved about 1,500 tons of diesel fuel, worth 22 billion soums. Predicting excavator parts wear reduced technological losses by 4 billion soums.
Similar solutions are planned for other enterprises. At a meeting on advancing ferrous metallurgy to a new level, the president tasked developing a program to increase equipment efficiency by 20%, reduce production costs and energy consumption, and cut maintenance and downtime expenses.
The Bekabad Metallurgical Plant also sees great potential for AI. According to experts, using AI to automatically detect non-metallic impurities in scrap metal could save about 25 billion soums annually. Installing smart sensors on smelting furnaces would reduce electricity costs by approximately $3 million per year.
Simultaneously, a unified scientific support system for the industry is being created. The Center for Economic Research and Reforms will become the metallurgy's think tank. Scientific laboratories of major metallurgical enterprises, specialized universities, and the branch of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in Almalyk will be involved.
These organizations will analyze future demand for new materials, determine which projects to develop, which technologies to implement, and which specialists to train.
Additionally, one-, three-, and five-year development programs for the metallurgical industry will be created for each region of the country.
Starting from the new academic year, a ferrous metallurgy department will open at the Bekabad Metallurgical Plant, with training organized on a dual system combining study and work at the production site.
The next step will be launching a unified platform that consolidates data on industry problems, enabling faster management decisions and coordination of the metallurgical complex's development.
Earlier, Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that domestic metallurgy lacks informatization and AI adoption. He also highlighted high import dependence, high production costs, and energy consumption.
Source: podrobno.uz