Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is about to reach its maximum production output ever this year, the company’s Chairman Viktor Rashnikov announced at a trade union meeting. MMK is now the world’s twentieth largest steelmaking enterprise and Russia’s No. 1. MMK produced 11.046 million tons of steel in January-October 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 771,700 tons. The company expects to make 12.2 million tons of steel by the end of 2007.

Mr. Rashnikov also commented on the company’s successful IPO at London Stock Exchange and the launch of a number of large-scale investment projects outside Magnitogorsk (such as the construction of a large metallurgical facility in Turkey and a plant in Saint Petersburg).

According to Mr. Rashnikov, the enterprise’s impressive development over the last decade has been greatly facilitated by the stable political and economic situation in the country. ‘I don’t believe we would have reached as much if the government had not tried to create nice developmental conditions for us. Vladimir Putin has been President since 2000, and he was able to make the political and economic state of events steady and get the country out of a crisis. There have been a lot of improvements since the beginning of the millennium, which can be proved by the current socio-economic data,’ he said.