Alexis Castañeda Ramírez recognizes the advantages of having Acinox Las Tunas as a supplier .
Alexis Castañeda Ramírez recognizes the advantages of having Acinox Las Tunas as a supplier.

The assistant mechanic Alexis Castañeda Ramírez, a worker of the Ernesto Che Guevara Company, a nickel plus cobalt producer, in the municipality of Moa in the province of Holguín, whom I found in the inner yards of the Stainless Steel Company, Acinox-Las Tunas, carrying industrial oxygen cylinders.

And despite the natural effort that the task demands, Alexis was happy and explained his reasons, “it is convenient for us to be able to move the gases from here to our territory because we solve a big problem and help the country's economy”, he says with visible signs of satisfaction.

"Now, he adds, it is closer, because before our suppliers were from Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey. This reduces costs, and it is easier and faster for us to access this essential gas in our work."

CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

Undoubtedly, the labor collective of this entity of Las Tunas is characterized by its professional and technical preparation and its capacity to turn challenges into opportunities. They are demonstrating this in times of limitations to do what they do best: produce steel.

As an example of this resilience, since January, they have been bottling and shipping industrial oxygen to Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, and Granma, a highly demanded product in several metallurgical production processes in Cuba.

Luis García García, director of the base business unit (UEB in Spanish) Plantas Industriales of factory from Las Tunas, recalls that they began bottling industrial oxygen when the largest supplier plant in the country, located in Havana, which sets the pace of production, was out of service due to breakage and has as a priority the Public Health system.

Luis recognizes the team he leads and the rest of the metallurgists of this innovative entity as self-sacrificing, dedicated, and well-prepared people. “They are people who know what they have to do and do it well,” he says.

FROM THE ATMOSPHERE TO INDUSTRY

Leandro Castellanos says that bottling industrial oxygen is the materialization of a long-standing desire.
Leandro Castellanos says that bottling industrial oxygen is the materialization of a long-standing desire.

According to Leandro Castellanos, head of one of the brigades of the air fractionation plant in Acinox Las Tunas, it was possible to materialize the dream with the acquisition in Santiago de Cuba of a used high-pressure industrial gas compressor and, oxygen booster.

Leandro confirms that before the installation of the aforementioned compressor, they could not bottle and only extracted the gas they used in the steel plant since they did not have the means to bottle it, market it, and take it to other places.

Now, he emphasizes, they extend the benefit and incorporate income that alleviates the economy of the company, when the steel production receives the impact of the complex current situation of the nation, and sees its production capacities diminished.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDUSTRIAL AND MEDICINAL OXYGEN

“Industrial oxygen, Leandro comments, requires more purification, from 99.5 percent purity, and medicinal oxygen is 99.3, and in both, we are achieving 99.9 percent above the demanded indicator.”

He clarifies that medicinal oxygen has water to give it humidity and prevent the purity level from burning the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, i.e., the humidity is lowered to avoid damage; while the industrial oxygen is pure to achieve maximum effectiveness in cutting without scratching the metal, which is a tendency.

Remember that this gas is used in scrap and billet cutting, and the furnace because oxygen is blown into heat the steel, which speeds up the melting process and lowers costs because it reduces electricity consumption.

ALBERTO'S SATISFACTION

Alberto de la Cruz and his satisfaction with the return.
Alberto de la Cruz and his satisfaction with the return.

As satisfied as Alexis Castañeda Ramírez, and his co-worker, is Alberto de la Cruz Cilot, who, after 24 years of intense work at Acinox Las Tunas, retired and returned to the area he loves so much.

He says he still feels proud and committed because "from my position, I am helping to save lives by filling medical oxygen cylinders, and now I am adding industrial oxygen cylinders to contribute to the development of this country's economy. I can't ask more from life, nor Acinox," he emphasizes, and is grateful for the opportunity to return to his job.

During the worst days of COVID-19, Acinox Las Tunas delivered medical liquid oxygen and now continues to collaborate with deliveries of this medicine to medical institutions in the territory.

All aspire to increase these productions, something possible with technological improvement, because the metallurgists from Las Tunas have qualified strength and steel will. They are demonstrating this daily.