NLMK looks for buyers of NLMK Coatings

NLMK of Vladimir Lisin plans to sell its French plant for the production of rolled and galvanized steel NLMK Coating. The reason is the fall in demand: EU carmakers have shifted the demand for hot-dip galvanized steel, and NLMK Coating works on method of electrogalvanizing. But the purchase of such asset without the raw material base is not obvious for EU steelmakers, analysts say.

NLMK of Vladimir Lisin (he owns 85.54% of the shares), within the framework of the restructuration of the European division NLMK Belgium Holdings (NBH) negotiates on the sale of a company, which produces electro-galvanized steel, president of the company Oleg Bagrin said yesterday. He didn’t disclose the name of the plant, applicants and other details, but explained that the potential sale is connected with the fact that automakers - the main consumers of galvanized rolled steel of the company in the EU – switched over to new technologies, for which rolled metal, made by hot galvanizing, is preferable. In the case of the asset sale, NLMK will replace the shortfall in the capacity with expansion of hot-dip galvanized or purchase of such enterprise, said Mr. Bagrin. Hot-dip galvanizing enable to achieve denser coverage, amortization is, an interlocutor of the Kommersant in the industry explains.