BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
02/12/2010
Belarusian metallurgical sector to ends 2010 on a positive note
Following is the excerpt from an interview between Mr Renata Dudala of www.wnp.pl and Mr Natallia office manager of BMZ Poland Sp.
Q - How can I sum up the ending year for the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant?
A - BMZ financial results in 2010 improved significantly compared to last year. The year 2009 ended with the mill with a positive result. Production in 2009 totaled 2.3 million tonnes of steel. Expected production volume of BMZ in 2010 is 2.5 million tonnes of steel.
Q - How is the company's strategy?
A - In 2009, a large investment was realized, which was the launch of a new continuous casting machine for the production of round billets. Further investments are also planned for the amount of USD 30 million, which will be implemented 2011-2012. The range of investments will include pipe production (this will result in a significant increase in the production of pipes according to API), the construction of a gas oxygen and the construction of new mill round bars. In November 2010, in Frankfurt, Prime Minister of Belarus Mr Sergei Sidorsky (owner of the mill is a state) and the Board have signed an investment company Danieli to build a business plan sheet mill.
Q - How do you assess the current situation and prospects of the steel market?
A - Currently you can see the substantial increase in demand for steel products of our production. Do not expect a downturn in 2011, but rather we expect further growth.
It is difficult to make forecasts of price, because nobody knows what to outweigh the importance of where they stand on one side of the price and availability of scrap, waiting processing companies, production costs, producers' expectations, and the other consumption of steel products, expectations of distributors.
All this, of course, is also related to the health of the banking system, industry and construction. The improvement can be seen especially in the latter segment. Evidenced by the sale of steel mill production last December. Received two times more orders than production capacity in the COS and billets, rounds, and three times more on ribbed bars. Main production mills, which are the cords for car tires, have been contracted to the end of 2011, while orders from regular customers received 30% more than the amount of existing capacity.
Q - What changes should be expected in the steel market?
A - As for commodity prices, according to forecasts, the Russian suppliers in the price of scrap during 2011 will increase by 10% to 12%. On the market there will be new production capacity, which would increase the demand for scrap. Investment will commence by halted the crisis. Unfortunately the amount of scrap available in the market will get smaller. Seeing this problem, the majority of Russian steel mills, or takes up its own subsidiaries engaged in the acquisition of scrap metal. We think that this problem is also valid for the European market.
(Sourced from www.wnp.pl)
Source:
Archive
Subscribe Daily Newsletter:
