OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 July 2009 was announced, that OMK Sales Department Director Nikolay Zaytsev participated in the 7th Metallurgical Summit held in Moscow by the magazines Metal Bulletin and Eurasian Metals. At the session "How Metallurgical Companies Position Themselves Facing a Sagging Demand for Steel," Nikolay Zaytsev spoke on "OMK Strategy: Investments in New Technologies."

The OMK Sales Department Director focused on the Company's strategy amid the global economic recession and OMK's high priority projects for the near future. "In the current recessional environment, the strategy of United Metallurgical Company remains unchanged," said Nikolay Zaytsev. "It involves modernization of production and investments in new technologies. This strategy is purported to create a vertically integrated company, enhance production efficiency, and maximize cost reduction."

This strategy, in conjunction with OMK's participation in high-profile projects jointly with such solid and prestigious partners as Gazprom, Transneft, and some other oil and gas companies, substantially contributed to the Company’s current robustness. "Our relations with the participants of these projects are based on long-term agreements, which guarantees certain stability in these turbulent times," added Nikolay Zaytsev. "For instance, during January-April this year we produced 305.3 thousand tonnes of large-diameter pipes, as compared with 229.1 thousand tonnes in the equivalent period in 2008."

According to Nikolay Zaytsev, OMK, unlike many metallurgical companies, does not buy new assets abroad, but uses its profits to create its own facilities and research centers, modernize and rehabilitate its existing facilities, whose purpose is to manufacture unique new products that can compete with those made by the world's leading producers.

Speaking of the Company’s large-scale implemented investment projects, Nikolay Zaytsev gave a detailed account of the operations conducted by the Casting and Rolling Complex (put into operation in October 2008). "The production of our own coiled steel at CRC enables OMK to efficiently manage costs, respond to the market demand in a more expeditious manner, and deliver metal to Vyksa Steel Works and Almetyevsk Pipe Plant within shorter timeframes," emphasized the OMK Sales Department Director. "Manufacturing our own coils makes it possible to significantly reduce purchases from Russian smelters. All these factors add up to a weighty competitive advantage for OMK, which is very important in the current environment. For example, while during January-April last year we produced 229.1 thousand tonnes of large-diameter pipes, our LDP output during January-April this year reached 305.3 thousand tonnes, which is about 30% more.

CRC is among the world leaders for the rate of bringing production to designed figures and launching new products. "From the first days after the launch of CRC in October last year, we started to master the production of pipe steels," said Nikolay Zaytsev. At CRC, for example, it took us several months to produce steel grade 22GYu, while the largest smelters mastered its production for more than a year."

CRC has already launched intermediate- and low-carbon steels St3SP, 20, 22GYu, K52, K56, and 20KSKh. CRC is now mastering steels 10, 13 G1SU. OMK's short-term plans include a launch of the entire range of key steels required for pipe production at Vyksa Steel Works and Almetyevsk Pipe Plant.

"From the date of its launch, CRC produced 278 thousand tonnes of hot-rolled coils, 45.5 thousand tonnes of strips, and 13 thousand tonnes of plates," said the Director of the OMK Sales Department. "I would like to note that pipes for such important project as BPS-2 are manufactured using CRC-made plates."

United Metallurgical Company (OMK) is one of Russia's largest producers of pipes, railroad wheels, and other metal products for energy, transport, and industrial companies. OMK comprises six largest enterprises in the metallurgical sector. The OMK Pipe-Rolling Division comprises Vyksa Steel Works (Nizhni Novgorod Region), Almetyevsk Pipe Plant (Republic of Tatarstan), and Trubodetal (Chelyabinsk Region); the OMK Steel Works Division comprises Chusovoy Metallurgical Works and Gubakha Coke (Perm Territory), and Shchelkovo Steel Works (Moscow Region).

In 2007, OMK products accounted for 18% of pipes consumed in Russia, including 34% of large diameter pipes, 62% of railroad wheels, and 75% of automobile springs. In 2007, the OMK enterprises produced 1.8 million tonnes of pipes of various sizes and 820 thousand railroad wheels. The main consumers of OMK products include such leading Russian and foreign companies as Gazprom, Russian Railways, LUKOIL, Transneft, Surgutneftegas, Rosneft, TNK-BP, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, General Electric, and Samsung. OMK supplies its products to 20 countries.