The Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) and the country's largest automotive corporation KAMAZ have signed a memorandum providing for the construction of a metal service center for carmakers in Naberezhniye Chelny, Tatarstan, which will be owned by the companies on a 50-50 basis.
The new metal service center, the processing capacity of which will reach 170,000 mt of hot rolled steel per year, is planned to be commissioned in 2012 and will supply KAMAZ with the necessary assortment of high quality rolled stock. Overall investment in the project will exceed Ruble 1 billion (about $32 million).
Accordingly, KAMAZ will be a major but not the sole customer of the metal service center, since, in addition to KAMAZ and its affiliates, the center is planning to ship its products to other carmakers, construction sector players, bridge-engineering and machine-building companies.