The Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has announced that it possesses certain liquidity and funds which will help the company weather the current crisis.
According to MMK's CEO Victor Rashnikov, along with its most important advantages (abovementioned) which will contribute to overcoming the current financial and economic crisis, is the fact that in recent years MMK has drastically overhauled and modernized its production assets in practically all its divisions, thus allowing the company to cut production costs by reducing consumption of raw and input materials.
Moreover, MMK's full electric power self-sufficiency and its high degree of production process flexibility allows the company to use different steelmaking methods depending on specific situations.
According to Mr. Victor Rashnikov, MMK has a comparatively lighter debt burden thanks to its conservative financial policy in the past. In implementing its modernization projects, MMK has always used cheap loans provided by Western banks to pay for purchases of imported equipment, while construction and erection activities have been financed out of the company's cash flows.