UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 14, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) adopted a strategy of ongoing investments in production upgrades for the next few years; the goal is to grow more efficient and reduce the plant’s environmental impact, MMK’s Key Customer Sales & Marketing Director Evgeny Sarana says.

According to the company’s press service, Sarana said during his report at the 21st Russian Metal Market International Conference in Moscow on November 12 that the metal goods market had reached its saturation point, so the extensive growth phase was over.

‘In the future, given the abundant market supply on the limited markets, companies that are now investing in overall efficiency improvements and in getting more skilled at making niche products will prove more competitive that others,’ Sarana said.

Sarana referred to MMK’s strategy of aiming to build up its share of the promising niche markets as an example of how a business can adjust successfully to a new market situation. MMK Group acquiring Lysva Metallurgical Plant (Russia’s only electrogalvanized rolled goods manufacturer and the country’s first maker of goods with Print polymeric coating) in 2017 was one step taken to achieve this goal; the acquisition has made MMK Group Russia’s largest galvanized and coated metal goods manufacturer. What is more, the Group can now offer its customers a much wider range of products.