OREANDA-NEWS. OAO Belarusian Steel Plant (BMZ), the management company of Belarusian Metallurgical Group, plans to establish a €339.2m rolled steel production facility in 2014, the Ministry of Industry of Belarus told.

BMZ is implementing a 2012-2015 production upgrade programme focused on establishing rolled steel production and building a wire rod mill.

The programme is partly financed by BMZ and credit resources of the Eurasian Development Bank, OAO Belarusbank.

As previously reported, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and OAO Belarusbank made an agreement July 18, 2013 to jointly finance the investment project to construct a small section wire mill at BMZ.

The EDB, as the arranger of finance for the project, will provide €141 million, which will be used to purchase key process equipment, and Belarusbank €142.8 million to finance construction and local costs. The loans are provided to one of Belarus' largest enterprises for ten years.

The project envisages the construction of a rolling mill, including the purchase, installation and commissioning of cutting-edge equipment and the building of a new small-section wire shop. At the first stage the new mill will produce 700,000 tonnes of wire a year. After additional equipment is installed the output will increase to 1 million tonnes a year.

The project is expected to break even in seven years.

State-owned company Belarusian Metallurgical Plant was launched in 1984. BMZ exports about 85% of its output. In 2013 BMZ products were exported to the EU, Russia, the Middle East, Ukraine, the United States, Africa, South Africa. The EU, the Middle East and Russia account for 86.6% of the BMZ's total exports.