Marubeni Itochu Steel Inc announced its recent decision to establish a sales company in Moscow, Russia that will primarily engage in the sale of steel products used to build automobiles.

MISI currently uses its Moscow Office as a forward base for sales support operations focused on energy related steel products. The decision to launch a sales company specializing in automotive related steel is based on projections for expanded demand for that type of steel in Russia.

MISI intends to use the new company as its local headquarters for selling automotive steel products to domestic Russian automakers and parts suppliers. The plans also envision efforts to clearly identify the needs of local steel consumers and study potential directions for business development in the near future.

The current annual scale of automobile production in Russia is in the vicinity of 2 million units with that level expected to approach 2.5 million units by fiscal 2015. This forecast clearly identifies automotive steel products as a promising growth sector for Russia in the years to come.