The steel market has bottomed out, said Metinvest CEO
Global steel market has bottomed out and current cycle slump coming to an end, said the General Director of Metinvest group Yuriy Ryzhenkov in an interview with Newsweek.
"I believe we are already at the bottom or close to the end of the current cycle. Every time this happens, some of the weaker players go out of business and consolidation to happen, and that's what's happening now," quotes Ryzhenkova the edition "Interfax-Ukraine".
According to Ryzhenkov, Metinvest is the link between resources, which are mostly located in the East of Ukraine, and their customers, which are concentrated in the South and East of Europe. Key markets are the regions of the Mediterranean, the Black sea and the Persian Gulf, Italy, France, the Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, North Africa and Turkey.
"Dividing this production chain for semi-finished products in Ukraine and finished goods in the target markets in Europe, we can provide fast customer service and to adapt to the requirements of customers and for many customers this is a key property," - said the head of "Metinvest".
According to Ryzhenkov, the assets of the group are very well placed geographically with good access to sea ports and rail network that allows to optimize the portfolio of sales almost daily and very responsive to markets.
this year the total investment of Metinvest will be about $ 120 million, while the focus will be on Mariupol and Krivoy Rog - the cities in which the group's assets. A large part of investments will be directed to Mariupol.
the Main shareholders of Metinvest are SCM group Rinat Akhmetov (71.25%) and "Smart holding" Vadim Novinsky (23,75%) which jointly manage the company.