OREANDA-NEWS. Prime Minister of Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev yesterday chaired a meeting in Chelyabinsk discussing the development of the Russian ferrous metallurgy industry. The meeting focused on the industry's current status and future development opportunities.

The meeting was attended by Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian Deputy Prime Minister; Sergey Donskoy, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment; Igor Kholmanskikh, the Russian President’s envoy in the Ural Federal District; Alexey Rokhmanov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Amongst others.

Russian Steel, the not for profit partnership, was represented at the meeting by: Alexey Mordashov, President of Russian Steel and Chief Executive Officer of OAO Severstal and Igor Zyuzin, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Russian Steel as well as members of the Supervisory Board including Dmitry Pumpyansky, Chairman of the Board of TMK OJSC; Alexander Abramov, Chairman of the Board of EvrazGroup S.A.; Victor Rashnikov, Chairman of the Board of MMK OJSC; and Eduard Potapov, Chief Executive Officer of UK Metalloinvest LLC.

Alexey Rokhmanov presented a report outlining the current issues in the metallurgy industry.

Alexey Mordashov presented his thoughts on the current status and development opportunities for Russia's metallurgy industry. Alexey Mordashov commented: “Russia's ferrous metallurgy industry has shown significant growth in recent years. Major investments have been made into our facilities. Today, we can proudly say that Russia's ferrous metallurgy industry is a real global leader in terms of its facilities and technology.”

Mr. Mordashov stressed, however, that in order to maintain this leadership, especially in the current challenging market environment, governmental support for Russian metallurgic businesses would be critical. Alexey Mordashov presented a set of proposals by Russian Steel aimed at improving the competitive position of Russian metallurgic companies, promoting steel consumption in Russia, and safeguarding the domestic market.

Dmitry Medvedev agreed that measures had to be taken to support the metallurgy industry in the context of a declining market. “We definitely need to promote demand for steel, particularly in such metal-intensive industries as the fuel and energy sector and construction” he noted.