Russian steel consumption rises in Q1

According to the information received from a reliable industry source, steel consumption in Russia increased in the first quarter of 2007. In particular, the consumption of flats increased by 17 percent year on year to about one million metric tons in the first three months of 2007. During the period in question, a notable rise in flats consumption was seen in the automobile and engineering industries – up 13 percent in each of these fields. However, the highest increase in Russian steel consumption was noted in the rebar sector. Compared to the first quarter of 2006, in the first three months of 2007 the consumption of steel rebar in Russia rose 54 percent to 6.35 million metric tons. Moreover, the figures show that during the period in question rebar consumption exceeded the county's production volume of 5.48 million metric tons, resulting in an increase in imports.