OREANDA-NEWS. July 12, 2011. Belarus plans to issue shares of Belarusian Metal Plant (BMZ) soon, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko told reporters in Minsk.

“We are ready for any form of cooperation. We have started the process of transformation of BMZ into a joint-stock company to be able to respond to any proposals from investors,” he said.

Semashko does not rule out that a stake may be sold to an investor, or an investor may finance a sheet rolling production. “We need to build a new plant near BMZ, so we can create a joint venture, consider a separate project, and it is the likeliest option,” he said.

He said BMZ looked to implement a hot-rolled sheet production project. “It will be implemented in two stages: first, we must reach 700,000 tonnes of hot-rolled sheet annually, to meet the entire domestic requirement. These capacities will be expanded later to increase our export potential.”

Belarus considered investors besides Italian Danieli. “A memorandum is not a contract, not even a draft constrict, but a declaration of intent. We still consider Danieli to be a potential partner, though. The project is worth USD 1 billion; there is a business plan and we have calculations,” Semashko said.

“We keep working with other companies as well: European, Russia, global. We discussed the proposals that BMZ has yesterday. There is a task for the producer to reach specifics in two months, and we will announce which company we will work with.”