Russia raises scrap consumption in January-July

According to statistical data, scrap supplies to the steel mills of Russia rose 10.4 percent year on year to almost 10 million metric tons in January-July of 2006. Among metallurgical enterprises, ZapSib, MMK and NKMK were the leaders in scrap consumption, raising the amounts of consumed scrap by 39 percent, 34 percent and 10 percent year on year respectively in the first seven months of 2006. In the meantime, the country's crude steel output was up by 7.6 percent during the given period.