Mechel, one of the leading Russian mining and steel groups, has announced that in May 2009 it increased its steelmaking capacity utilization level to more than 94 percent. In addition, during the period in question, the company's metallurgical commodity products capacity utilization was more than 95 percent, with rolled products reaching about 99 percent, hardware - about 74 percent, and forgings and stampings exceeding the level of 58 percent.
In the fifth month of 2009, the blast furnace production capacity utilization level at Mechel's subsidiary Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant was above 112 percent, its steelmaking capacity utilization rate was more than 105 percent, while its metallurgical commodity products capacity utilization level was about 104 percent.
Meanwhile, in May 2009, the metallurgical commodity products capacity utilization level at Mechel's Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant was about 93 percent, while it stood at above 72 percent at its subsidiary Izhstal and at about 103 percent at Vyartsilya Metallurgical Plant.
The steelmaking capacity utilization rate in May 2009 at Mechel's plants in Romania was about 76 percent, while their hardware production capacity load was about 83 percent.
"Our plant's capacity utilization growth became possible due to the measures we took to optimize our production as well as due to Mechel's efficient sales policy. We managed to increase the quality of our sales network operation including performance of Mechel-Service - the only Russian large retail sales company which is a part of a group producing finished steel products. Our own sales networks provide control over products shifting from the plants to the end consumers. They also enable us to make prompt responses to signs of recovery in the world steel market. Additionally, we redistributed streams of our wholesale sales in the world steel market. Now semi-finished goods are mainly sold to the Asia-Pacific region and Middle East countries. High margin downstream steel products are supplied to Western European countries. The revival of the steel segment production volume provides for growth of internal consumption of raw materials. Thus, we see increase in demand for coking coal, ferroalloys, iron ore and coke inside the group," Mechel's senior vice president Vladimir Polin stated. He went on to add, "Currently Mechel is the only Russian company commissioning coke ovens after the period of suspension and production volume decline."