UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 1, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sold 1,800,000,000 kg of long products last year, 98% of which got directed to customers on the home markets (including the CIS member states), the company’s press service reports.

MMK’s Sales Department’s Senior Officer Alexander Margishvili gave a talk on the company’s performance in 2018 during the conference on rolled section steel and profiled iron in Moscow.

According to Margishvili, even though the Russian rolled section steel-making facilities are currently being underused (their current workload in Russia on the whole is now under 50% of their full capacity), MMK’s sales remained more or less the same in 2018 as in 2017 and amounted to some 1,800,000,000 kg. The plant’s rolled section steel mills are working at their full capacity, with 78% of produce getting shipped to Russian customers, 20% getting shipped to customers in the CIS member states, and 2% getting shipped to the rest of the world.

MMK has been trying to produce fewer standardized products and more marginal, industry-specific products lately; the latter already make up 30% of the company’s overall sales. MMK is trying to raise its sales through its own sales network MMK Trading House. The network comprises more than thirty branches in Russia (including a production site in Shchelkovo and a metal center in Magnitogorsk) and five warehouses in Kazakhstan.