Uzmetkombinat opens Lithuania office, eyes Europe exports

Uzmetkombinat, Uzbekistan’s state-owned steelmaker under the management of SFI Management Group, has opened a trading office in Vilnius, Lithuania, the company tells Kallanish.

The enterprise intends to supply rebar and wire rod to the Baltic countries by rail and road, as well as to northern and Eastern Europe through the port of Klaipeda.

However, its main goal is to export long products form Uzbekistan to Europe, where opportunities have emerged after the cessation of supplies from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine dur to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Uzmetkombinat has already certified its rebar in Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden, and in the near future expects to receive similar documents in Finland, Denmark and Norway, the company says. There are plans to organise deliveries to other European countries.

In 2021, Uzmetkombinat produced 1.075 million tonnes of finished long products. Of these, 123,000t were exported, mainly to the neighbouring countries of Central Asia.

Earlier, Uzbekistani coil coater Toshkent Metallurgiya Zavodi (TMZ) said it is stepping up its supply of product to Europe after signing agreements with buyers in Poland, Germany and Estonia (see Kallanish passim). TMZ has started shipping products to European countries in containers by rail. The first 250t were shipped to Tallinn in Estonia.

Uzbekistan produced in June about 60,000t of crude steel, down by 16% on-year, according to worldsteel data. In January-June the country produced 385,000t, less by 23% on-year.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria