Belarus-based Byelorussian Steel Works (BMZ) has announced that it plans to produce and ship about 30,000 mt of steel cord and various kinds of wire in August. This figure is almost a third more than it was in May, when the global steel market saw a sharp slump in demand amid the coronavirus.
The steel wire production of BMZ, in particular steel cord and bead bronze wire production, was most of all hit by the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the world economy. Due to the suspension of operations of large European tire companies during the pandemic, consumption of these products dropped sharply. However, the production capacity utilization of BMZ’s wire shops is steadily increasing now.
The company noted that in August it received additional orders for almost 1,000 mt of steel cord and bead bronze wire from tire plants in Serbia, Germany, Russia, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
During the first seven months this year, BMZ exported almost 1.2 million mt of steel products to 50 countries. The top destinations were Russia, Germany, Israel, Lithuania and Poland.