OREANDA-NEWS. Metinvest has rebranded its sales department from "Leman Ukraine" to "Metinvest Ukraine" for wholesale and "Metinvest SMC" for retail sales. The group also plans to spend USD 11.4mln for sales development. The company plans to open seven new service centers and a processing shop in Kiev. The project is to be finished by the end of 2008.

In the view of Millennium Capital experts, the intention of Metinvest to develop domestic retail network looks logical in view of tremendous growth of Ukraine's consumption. According to company's expectations, its domestic sales will increase by 71% y/y over 10M07. It is also expected that CIS rolled steel consumption will grow by 9-12% y/y in 2008, so an attractive niche arises in the market.