Metallurgical companies ask for state support

The largest Russian steelmakers, which continue to benefit from the weakening of the ruble, still want help from the state, explaining this with the slowdown in domestic demand and the growth of protective measures on export markets. At the meeting at the office of the Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, they asked not to support the establishment of new steel capacities, to help deal with the problems of exports and imports and to stimulate aluminum consumption in Russia. These questions are placed for a long time, but metallurgical companies are not in the worst position in the Russian economy for a while, experts say.

The situation in the steel industry, the second largest Russian industry after the oil one, "was rather difficult" in 2015 and "is not trouble-free, the further decrease in production volumes is possible," - Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday at the meeting in Perm. The Prime Minister identified three main reasons for the problems. The first one is the reduction in the domestic demand by 9% in 2014 to 41 million tons of rolled steel, primarily due to the lower consumption in the construction industry (by 12%) and automotive industry (by 25%). The second one is restriction of export opportunities due to protective measures in the United States, Europe and other countries (Russia exports about a third of steel, 27 million tons in 2015). The third reason, which affected also the non-ferrous metallurgy, was the drop in world prices by 20-45%.