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05 March 2008
Severstal-Metiz refocusing
Steel fabricator Severstal-Metiz has begun making pre-stressed concrete (pc) strand at Cherepovets in Russia. The line started up last September and is running at roughly two-thirds of its 24,000 tonnes/year capacity, a company source tells Steel Business Briefing. The launch has also meant the Russian plant could close its 500 t/month production of low-temperature tempered strand.
Cherepovets is already supplying the new product to its UK customers: The 150m rouble ($6m) investment highlights Metiz’s approach to restructuring its operations. “While we will sell to everywhere from everywhere, there will be product specialisation at our various plants. [...] We will concentrate more on the high value-added business into the EU,” says company CEO, Olga Naumova.
In Russia, the division comprises wire and rope production at Cherepovets, Orel and Volgograd, and in 2006 it acquired Ukraine’s Dneprometiz and the UK’s Carrington Wire. Exporting from Cherepovets is part of the thinking behind the closure of Carrington’s Cardiff site, which had been making pc strand for the UK, SBB hears.
However, the Russian sites will focus on Russia, with Cherepovets making cold-drawn, high and low-carbon products for construction, cars, the railways, mining and machine building. Orel specialises in fasteners and welding products, mostly for cars and machine building. Volgograd’s high-carbon products are for mining, the railways and metallurgy.
In Ukraine, the focus is low carbon, while the UK will cater to the high-carbon segment. Dneprometiz is also being rationalised. It used to have two sites, one either side of the river Dnepr, but one has just closed, adds Naumova.
“A lot of capacity has been taken out of Europe in the last few years and Severstal-Metiz is not competing for the bulk market,” she says. Its 1.1m t/y output is stable, and annual sales are around $840m.
Steel Business Briefing
Victoria Glasson
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