Mechel, one of the leading Russian mining and steel groups, has announced that it has established an official representative office in the Chinese capital Beijing.
"The representative office will support Mechel's business in China, cooperate in the expansion of Mechel's business in the country, work directly with Chinese partners, establish new business contacts and perform studies on market dynamics," reads the company's statement.
Accordingly, since 2007 Mechel has been delivering iron ore concentrate produced at its Korshunov Mining Plant to China, and since 2009 it has also been supplying ferroalloys as well as coking coal concentrate produced at Yakutugol to its Chinese customers. Currently, the volumes of these shipments are being gradually increased. In 2005 and 2008, Mechel signed contracts with China Coal Overseas Development Co. for the purchase of new coal excavation technologies and equipment for its subsidiary Southern Kuzbass Coal Company. Moreover, Mechel also signed a memorandum of intent with Minmetals, one of China's largest state industrial corporations, within the framework of which the first contract to construct the new universal rail and structural steel mill at Mechel's Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant has already been inked.
The new representative office is already the third one opened by Mechel in the Asia-Pacific region. Other representative offices of the company were previously opened in South Korea and Japan.