‘Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) produced about 1.1 million tons of metal goods at the beginning of 2008, whereas at the moment, the figure comes to 600,000 tons, or about 60% of the earlier outputs. Unfortunately, there is little or no purchasing power on the home market right now; moreover, we have to export at prices below the prime cost. Nevertheless, we did manage to break even in March 2009. We put a lot of effort into decreasing the prime cost, so now MMK is gradually starting to make a profit again,’ MMK BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov said at a press conference following the enterprise’s AGM.

‘Besides, we keep on working on our Mill 5000 that is to be launched this July. All the machinery has been assembled, so the start-up and commissioning will begin in June. What is more, we are about to launch our new polymeric coating unit as well as the new CC casting machine and a new unit for our oxygen converter shop,’ he added.