Since the beginning of the year, the NLMK Group has reduced production volumes by approximately 1 million tons compared to the benchmarks laid down, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Vladimir Lisin said at the congress of the regional union of industrialists and entrepreneurs in Lipetsk.

„Now it’s already July – in fact, only we have lost a million tons. And this means, as we predicted, all Russian metallurgy will lose from 30% to 50%,” he said.

According to him, now it is difficult to imagine the implementation of long-term investment programs by metallurgists: „We used to do long-term programs, now they are becoming quite short and for us quite difficult to implement, even just to imagine.” For long-term investment programs, it is necessary to clearly understand the plans for production volumes, types of products, he added.

“It is clear that the implementation of investment programs has become much more complicated. Of course, we will bring what we had to the end. Maybe with some delay, because there are delays in the supply of equipment. And then the question arises, what will be the possibility of replacing it , reproduction within the country,” Lisin added.

Commenting on the situation with demand in the domestic market, he noted that there was a „decrease in activity”, while recalling the closure of export markets for Russian steelmakers, which accounted for approximately 40% of total production, and low profitability when shipped to Asia-Pacific countries: ” Some exports have been closed for us, the existing Asian destinations and China are quite difficult in terms of logistics and freight costs. Chinese, for example, steel at a price today is almost at the level of the cost of Russian steel.”

„40% ( of the products previously exported by metallurgists – IF ) needs to be put somewhere. Let’s say that 10 or 15 percent will somehow be added, even 50% of these 40%. And what to do with the rest? The domestic market has never consumed so much. Accordingly , in the domestic market, among other things, and prices fell, including due to a large surplus,” he added.