16 Sep 2009 07:00
PRESS RELEASE
September 16, 2009
NLMK resumes transformer steel production in Lipetsk
NLMK is pleased to announce that it has restarted its transformer steel production shop in Lipetsk, which was stopped last April due to a slow-down in electrical steel sales on the international markets. The decision to resume transformer steel production in Lipetsk was taken due to improvement in the transformer steel market after an unprecedented slump in demand in November 2008.
Since April 2009, transformer steel has only been produced at the company's VIZ-Stal facilities located in the Urals, resulting in the optimization of equipment utilization and the reduction of fixed costs.
In accordance with the target production program from September until the end of 2009, the transformer steel shop at the main site in Lipetsk will produce up to 1,700 tonnes per month. This will help the company to increase its sales in Q4 2009 in accordance with market demand.
For reference:
NLMK is one of the world's leading transformer steel producers with a 20% share of the global transformer steel market and a 100% market share in Russia. Since the beginning of this year, facilities in Lipetsk and VIZ-Stal have produced 160,000 tonnes and 190,000 tonnes of transformer steel respectively. NLMK Group's total transformer steel production capacity is approximately 350,000 tonnes.
During the first 6 months of 2009, NLMK Group produced 47,000 tonnes of transformer steel. Key consumers of transformer steel are large producers of electrical equipment in China, Europe, the USA and Russia.
NLMK
Anton Bazulev +7 495 915 1575