Russia dreams of creating a steel giant

Alisher Usmanov, the owner of Metalloinvest, believes that Russia should create the largest metallurgical company comparable to Gazprom. This requires the amalgamation of existing companies. Now Metalloinvest is going to invest in the modernization of its plants.

There is an oil giant and a gas giant in Russia, although the shares are controlled by the state. There is a giant bank, while everything is scattered in the mining and metallurgical industries. “Thus, we are subject to volatility. I believe that one day we will connect companies in these sectors, ”the media quoted Alisher Usmanoa.

Usmanov is the founder of the USM holding, which operates in many sectors of the international market. In addition to the metals and mining company sectors, USM operates in the telecommunications, Internet, media and real estate sectors. The billionaire earned, among other things, early stage investments in companies such as Facebook and Groupon.

The owners of the Norilsk Nickel concern could become partners in the creation of the metallurgical giant. With factories in Russia and Finland, the company is the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, and one of the largest producers of platinum and copper.

In the first three quarters of last year, Metalloinvest increased its iron ore production by 3.3 percent and steel production by 2.5 percent.

Usmanov announced the plans of the metallurgical giant a few months ago. Usmanov recently said in an interview that he has not abandoned plans to set up a giant mining and metal production company.

In December, they signed a contract with SMS Concast to modernize the continuous casting line at Plant No. 1 at Ural Steel. The line must be adapted to the production of 455 mm billets for the production of railway wheels, as well as 300 x 330 mm billets for the production of rails.

The modernization will ensure the production of highly profitable types of new products and strengthen the company's position in the market for high quality steel products and increase production efficiency. Investments in this project amount to more than 1 billion rubles, or more than 70 million people. The start of production is scheduled for mid-2017.