Mechel’s trading arm, Mechel-Service, sold more than 432,000 tonnes of steel products in the first quarter of 2022, up by 17% on-year, Kallanish notes.
The growth in sales of beams was 59%, hardware was 47%, shaped steel – 5%, wire VR-1 – 88% and ordinary sheet 16%.
“In the first quarter of the year, we retained our share in the rolled metal market for construction purposes,” says Mechel-Service director for sales Stanislav Karpov. “We continue to develop sales of products of the universal rail and beam mill of the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant. In order to reduce costs and make our customers more comfortable, we are planning to open new sorting and roofed hardware warehouses in the regions.”
Earlier, Mechel-Service supplied 4,900t of rebar for the construction of United Metallurgical Company (OMK)’s green metallurgy complex, “Ecolant,” in Vyksa (see Kallanish passim).
The products, produced by Mechel’s Chelyabinsk steelworks, were used in the construction of a full-cycle electrometallurgical complex using modern environmentally friendly technologies.
This is a “green” steelmaking pilot project in Russia, which uses technologies that are advanced not only for the country but also for Europe, Mechel-Sevice claims.
The future OMK complex will produce steel using the direct reduction method using iron ore pellet and natural gas. Ecolant will have a 1.8 million tonnes/year of liquid steel capacity, and will be equipped with two continuous casters. Commissioning is scheduled for 2025.
Construction demand boosted Mechel-Service shipments in 2021 by 15% on-year to 1.75mt (see Kallanish passim).
Parent company Mechel forecasted steady demand for most products in 2022, but this was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and new sanctions against Moscow.
The company saw last year crude steel output decreased by 3% on-year to 3.53mt and pig iron output was down 10% on-year to 3.16mt. Consolidated revenue however increased by 51% to almost $3.8 billion.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
