OREANDA-NEWS. December 3, 2007. EBITDA for the first 9 months of 2007 for the "Severstal-metiz" Group of Companies, showed a 15% increase compared to the same period last year, up from 47 million US dollars to 54 million US dollars, the press service of the company reported.
 
The sales volumes for the 9 month period in 2007 were 796.1Kt, down from 816.4 Kt for the same period in 2006; this is a reduction of 2.5%. This follows the strategy of focusing on higher added value products. Changes to the product portfolio and Sales structure have resulted in lower volumes but higher margins. Sales revenue for the first 3 quarters of this year has grown 25% compared to 2006, from 604 million US dollars to 754 million US dollars.

Olga Naumova, the CEO of the company "Severstal-metiz", commented that "in today’s environment, only flexible organizations that focus on specific products and services, optimizing efficiency and costs can be highly effective." She further noted that "We are extremely confident that following such a strategy will ensure that "Severstal-metiz" will remain market leader in the Russian hardware market and give us the ability to compete equally with the leading European companies."