1971
The project of coke-chemical plant construction in the Altaisky region was approved by the XXIV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

A large, colossal, enormous amount of work was expected. Because coke-chemical plant - is a giant complex of lots of departments: Heat Electro Station, objects of water supply, electro supply, sewerage system and so on. We also needed reconstruction of railways, railway station, new railways. Besides, we had to build houses, kinder gardens, shops. Everything had to be build from the “zero” point.

In 1972 the first tractors with builders appeared on the territory of the “future plant”. V. N. Bazhura guided the building, he was a director of the building company BC-18 (Bisky trest #122). So without beautiful words and speeches we began to work hard.

In 1976 the building of our plant was named a Komsomolskaya Building. The general secretary of (CPSU) Leonid Brezhnev visited our plant and said: “We must note that young workers successfully work at projects capacities”.

In May 1977 the building of the coke battery began. Lots of employees of different professions were busy with building. While constructing the battery we needed 22 thousand tones of fireproof bricks of 12 hundred kinds.

Alexandr Antonovich Kotovich

Period 1977-1981   The area (where the process of building) took place remained more and more an industrial object. New departments were ready for exploitation: auto transport department, heat electro center, coal department, chemical department and so on.

Pavel Osadchiy

1981 Battery #1 was ready for loading. “At last it happened! Hands are busy with necessary bottoms and levers. The last look at the plan, thoug it is a well memorized thing. It is due to high professionalism. Then coal loading goes. The black abyss takes coal in silence. A thick smoke slowly creeping out of the battery. It happened on the 3-d of December 1981. Pavel Osadchy was granted a right to make the first loading at the first coke battery in Altai”.

Newspaper "Altaiskaya Pravda"

Coke-screening station

1981 On the 5-th of December we got the first coke. The first batch was sent to Kuzbass.

The coke battery #2, 1982

1982 On the 25-th of October the coke battery #2 produced coke. The heating of the batteries was done with the help of coke gas. Chemical departments produced benzol, ammonium sulphate, coal pitch (tar).

The coke battery #3

1983 The coke battery #3 was started. The history of coke-chemical companies didn’t have such an example, when 3 batteries were started for a period of 3 years.

Building the plant of the coke quenching.

1985 The coke battery #4 produced the first coke. So the building of the coke-chemical plant influenced much on the foundation of the town. The motto of the first director of the plant A. A. Kotovich was: “… the plant must have only the best!” Soon the medical department was opened, in 1988 - the preventive clinic “Bodrost”. In 1989 the center “Dosug” was founded and sport stadium “Unost” - in 1991.

Zarinsk under construction

In 1993 our plant became the JSC “Altai-koks”.

In 2000 the installation of processing the coal pitch (tar) came into exploitation, with the capacity of 200 thousand tones annually. Experts say, our pitch has a very high quality.

In 2001 the JSC«Altai-Koks» celebrated the 20-th anniversary from the moment of production the first coke and production of the 60 mln.-d tone of coke.

On the 1-st of September in 2004 on the base of the installation of the coke battery #5, coke department #3 and coal department #2 were opened.

April 3, 2006 – The JSC “Altai-Koks” became a part of the world’s most profitable steel producers – Novolipetsk Steel Mill (NLMK).

June 27, 2006 – Pavel Vladimirovich Lizogub was elected a general manager by the committee of directors of the JSC “Altai-Koks”.

October 20, 2006 – At the JSC “Altai-Koks” a unique coke battery #5 was commissioned. Currently, with respect to its technical & economic characteristics, the coke battery #5 doesn’t have analogues in Russia. Two semi-batteries form one coke set which encloses 82 chambers. Its total annual production capacity amounts 1140 th. tones of coke with 6% moisture content. The President’s plenipotentiary in the Siberian Federal District Anatoly Kvashnin, the Chairman of  the JSC “NLMK” Vladimir Sergeevich Lisin, the Head of the Administration of the Altai land Alexander Karlin, the Head of the Authorities of town Zarinsk Vladimir Babushkin took part in solemn ceremony of setting into operation of the battery.

December 5, 2006 – The JSC “Altai-Koks” celebrated its 25-th jubilee.

March 2007 – Altai-koks OJSC won the gold medal for European Quality in the nomination of the Top 100 Best Russian Organizations: Environment and Environmental Management, held at the International Academy for Quality and Marketing. At the awards ceremony held in St. Petersburg, the General Director of the company, Pavel Lizogub was given the honorary title of Ecologist of the Year 2006.

7 May 2007 – Coke oven battery No.5 at Altai-koks OJSC produced its first 500,000 tonnes of coke from the moment it was launched on 20 October 2006.

9 May 2007 – The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree for workers’ incentives at Altai-koks for their large investment in the development of the coke industry. Altai-koks is the first company in the region to receive the thanks of the Head of State for results in the manufacturing. 

6 June 2007 – An official ceremony was held at Zarinsk where Altai-koks OJSC was presented with a Letter of Thanks from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The head of administration for Altai Region, A.B. Karlin, presented the award to the enterprise.

In July 2007 Altai-koks was named Best Collective for Lean Optimization among enterprises in the Altai Region. As a result of work carried out in 2006 it was awarded a Diploma (2nd Grade) from the All-Russian Society of Inventors and Rationalizers. Since 2007 Altai-koks has been a member of the Altai Region social organization of the All-Russian Association for Inventors and Rationalizers.

In July 2007 Altai-koks’ transportation unit won the regional accident prevention competition for organizations carrying out transportation in the Altai Region. The total passenger turnover for the unit in 2006 exceeded 17,000 passengers/km, and the total freight turnover was over 7.7 tonnes.

In July 2007 kindergarten No.7 Polyanka, owned by Altai-koks, was awarded the Altai Kindergarten 2007 regional prize.  The competition included 29 other kindergartens from Barnaul, Biysk, Belokurikha, Aleisk, Kamen-on-the-Ob and other cities in the region.

In 2007 the Labour Union and the Altai-koks Administration signed a new collective agreement for 2007-2009. This has become the foundation for Altai-koks’ policy on social partnership aimed to increase employees’ living standards and social protection for the workers and their families. The new document, aligned with current legislation, largely protects the rights of the enterprise's employees.

In October 2007 Altai-koks became the first enterprise in Altai to be certified under the ISO 9001 standard which testifies to the high level of achievement in quality management. The certificate enables the Company to increase its competitiveness and further strengthen its position in foreign and domestic markets.

On 20 October 2007 the unique fifth coke battery complex celebrated one year since its launch. The Altai-koks battery has unparalelled technical and economic indicators in Russia. More than 800,000 tonnes of coke has been produced by coke battery No.5 at Altai-koks since the unique complex was commissioned in October 2006.

On 25 January 2008 at a meeting of the Board of Directors in Zarinsk, the Board of Altai-koks elected Pavel Lizogub as Chairman of the Board, who terminated the powers of Altai-koks Director General ahead of time. Vitaly Demidov was elected Director General of Altai-koks. Vitaly previously held the position of director for general matters of the Company.

March 27, 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks held its first professional excellence contest «The Best Foreman of the Year-2008" aimed at increasing the status of specialists being the strategic investment for the Company. Nikolai Sorokin,  the electric shop foreman, was the first in the nomination "Altai-Koks’ Young Foreman ".

May 13, 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks’ coke-oven battery No. 5 has produced 1.5 mn tons of coke since its commissioning in October 2006. The battery makes a new product, + 80 mm  cupola coke. Some units and mechanisms of coke battery No. 5 were additionally upgraded, air-conditioning equipment was refitted, and a CCTV system was installed in operators’ cabins. New environment protection equipment, a dust-free coke discharge system was put into operation to trap and clean dust-laden gas-air mixture.

July 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks became a winner in the annual regional contest "The Best Industrial Enterprise of Altaisky Krai" upon the results of its performance in 2007. The Administration of Altaisky Krai awarded the Coke Plant a Winner’s Diploma, the challenge banner of Altaisky Krai and cash bonus, which was spent on sports equipment for an orphanage in Zarinsk sponsored by the Company.

July 10, 2008 – summing up the results of the first corporate contest «Young Leader" held by OJSC Altai-Koks. 37 employees under 35 years of age took part in the contest. Sergei Okorokov, a lab assistant from the Laboratory of Ecological and Process Control, was pronounced the winner.

July 2008 – a new production facility, a tar desludging plant, was put into operation. It is equipped with the state-of-the-art automated control system and enables high quality production, recycling chemical wastes and cutting labor costs of tar storage cleaning. RUR 57 mn project was implemented as part of the technical upgrade program of OJSC Altai-Koks.

July 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks was awarded the second degree Diploma in the best innovation activity contest in 2007 among industrial enterprises of Altaisky Krai. The contest was held by the All-Russia Association of Inventors and Innovators of Altaisky Krai. The winners were  selected based on the implemented innovations number and their total economic benefits. (In 2007,  99 innovations were implemented and 99 patents were obtained by employees of Altai-Koks. The total economic effect of innovative activities amounted to RUR 27.5 mn, which is 6-fold increase as compared to the previous year.)

July 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks underwent the first compliance audit of the quality management system for compliance with the requirements of the international standard ISO 0991:2000 obtained in 2007.

September 2008 – OJSC Altai-Koks children health camp Lesnaya Dal was a prize-winner of the All-Russian Forum of children and youth recreation and health promotion "Anapa-2008". It was the first in the nomination «Targeted Supplementary Educational Programs and Family Links Development".

October 2008 – employees of OJSC Altai-Koks – Viktor Geist, Viktor Manoshkin, Alexander Rubtsov and Sergei Bolotin,  members of the Russian national team,  won the World and European Kettlebell lifting Championship among veterans (Arkhangelsk). Based on the results of the contest, with 300 athletes from 15 countries, the plant’s sportsmen brought home more than 30 medals. Sergei Bolotin won a bronze medal, Viktor Geist a silver medal, Viktor Manoshkin won the first place and became Kettlebell Lifting World and European Champion among veterans.

December 4, 2008.  Electric and gas welders from the equipment maintenance  shop  of OJSC Altai-Koks, Alexei Baier and Jury Narmushkin, won in a regional contest of professional skills "The Best in Profession-2008" in the Young Worker Nomination.