Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) section iron division’s enterprises, which were united under OOO NLMK-Sort’s management in December 2009, produced 1.7 million tons of steel in 2009. This was 11% less than in 2008. Also, the enterprises sold 1 million tons of reinforcing bar to their customers, which was 5.7% less than in the year 2008. On the other hand, the sales of wire rod were up 1.2% last year compared to the year before and amounted to 68,000 tons. The sales of metal products also increased by 29% in 2009 compared to 2008, reaching 188,000 tons. However, the amount of steel blanks (241,000 tons) sold by the enterprises last year fell short of the figures for 2008 by 55.5%.

In addition, Vtorchermet NLMK (Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works scrape metal division) shipped a total of 2.4 million tons of recycled scrap metal to consumers last year. This was 9.5% less than in the year 2008.

NLMK-Sort is a daughter enterprise of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works that unites NLMK Group’s section iron-manufacturing enterprises. NLMK-Sort’s key enterprises are Sverdlovsk Region-based OAO NSMMZ (dealing in electric furnace steelmaking and section iron production), ZAO BEMZ (dealing in section iron production), and ZAO UZPS (dealing in manufacturing of metal products).

The company explains that, builders being the company’s primary end users, the drop in the plants’ production outputs and sales volumes has to do with the general decline of business activity in the construction sector.