Mr. Yuri Sunayev, director for sales and regional distribution of the Russian steel producer Severstal, has stated that in 2007 the share of imported galvanized steel products will account for one third of the Russian domestic market. The main exporting country of this type of steel was named as China.
Mr. Sunayev continued by adding that the same situation could be expected in the Russian pre-painted steel market, given that the three largest domestic producers have a combined output of about 70,000 metric tons of pre-painted steel, while imports of this type of steel amount to a maximum of 37,000 metric tons a month.
Meanwhile, Russian domestic sales and regional distribution is the one of the main segments in Severstal's work. According to the company's data, in 2006 Severstal increased its share of the Russian steel market to 40 percent from 35 percent in 2005.