It is reported that West-Siberian Steel Works (ZapSib) and Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works (NTMK), subsidiaries of Russian steelmaker and iron ore producer Evraz Group (Evraz), may withdraw from the non-commercial partnership Russian Steel Consortium.
Accordingly, the boards of directors of the two subsidiaries have proposed to adopt the decision to withdraw from Russian Steel Consortium at the extraordinary general meetings of shareholders which are to be held on October 16, 2009.
Russian Steel Consortium was founded in October 2001, under an agreement between Russian steel producer NLMK and Evraz's NTMK, and unites a number of the main Russian steel producers, in order to coordinate efforts for the protection of the interests of Russian steelmakers and to implement non-commercial joint projects.
According to official data, the companies participating in Russian Steel Consortium produce 65 percent of Russian pig iron output, 53 percent of the country's steel output, 58 percent of Russian rolled steel product output, and a big part of the raw material for the domestic metallurgical industry.
Russian Steel Consortium includes such companies as NLMK, Evraz's NTMK and ZapSib, MMK, TMK, Koks, Tulachermet, Belon and others.