Russian long products consumption

According to the operational data, since beginning of the current year, the Russian users of long products consumed about 8.026 million tons of long products that indicates a 10 percent increase in domestic consumption from the first half-year of the last year. For the first six months of 2006, Russian long products producers dispatched about 9.342 million tons, up 6.4 percent from the same period of the last year. Russian exports of long products, on the other hand, decreased 13.9 percent and imports of long products decreased 14.1 percent year on year in the first six months of 2006.