December 02, 2008
Mechel Targoviste outlines expansion plans to conference delegates
Russian mining and metals companies Mechel OAO announced that representatives of the international business community made a working visit to Mechel's Romanian steel subsidiary, Mechel Targoviste. The visit was arranged within the framework of the 10th Central and Eastern European Steel Conference.
The 10th Central and Eastern European Steel Conference, which took place during September 18th to 20th 2007 at Bucharest in Romania, was organized by Metal Bulletin. The conference analyzed the development of steel markets and production in the Central and Eastern European countries, the outlook for industry consolidation, and investments in the development of distribution networks and new technologies.
On the first day of the conference, Mr Victor Trigubko vice president of Mechel presented it’s experience in extricating its Romanian steel assets from the heavy market downswing and decapitalization to improve profitability and meet modern requirements for production technology. These experiences, including fulfillment of the privatization obligations ahead of schedule, were acknowledged by the business community with operations in the region as worthy of attention.
As part of the presentation, Mechel also arranged a field trip for the conference delegates to Mechel’s Targoviste steel plant on September 20th 2007. Attending delegates included approximately 40 businessmen, international and local business media journalists and representatives of the government authorities. During the tour of the plant, Mr Vyacheslav Shmyga GD of Mechel presented the projects already implemented at the plant including the continuous casting machine with the capacity of 500,000 tonnes a year commissioned in March of this year, the upgraded complex of electric arc furnace and small section mill heating furnace. He informed that the medium section mill to be completely reconstructed in 2009.
Mechel expects to invest approximately USD 35 million to modernize Mechel Targoviste through 2011. The plan for 2007 includes an increase of the steel output and sales to more than 480,000 tonnes and about 440,000 tonnes respectively. In line with the objectives of Mechel's capital investment program, significant investments will be made in arrangements to reduce production costs and increase steel quality at Mechel’s steel subsidiaries.
