The consumption of cold rolled steel products in Russia's automobile industry is expected to exceed one million mt by 2011, two million mt by 2016, and almost three million mt in 2020, Russian steelmaker MMK's sales director Nikolai Lyadov said at the 13th International Conference ‘Russian Metal and Steel Market 2010', adding that the consumption of ordinary steels will decrease while consumption of high-strength steels will increase.
In order to benefit from the growing market for high- and ultra high-strength steel types, MMK is continuing the construction of its new cold rolling ‘mill 2000' complex. The complex will use state-of-the-art technologies to produce high quality cold-rolled and galvanized steel products for inner and outer car-body parts as well as for use in white goods production and in the construction industry.
MMK's mill 2000 will produce two million mt of finished steel products per year, including 700,000 mt of galvanized steel. The cold rolling mill and pickling line will be commissioned in the middle of 2011, while full-cycle production at the facility will be commissioned by mid-2012.