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articipants of the summit were welcomed by its organizers:
Yevgeny Shashkov, the Editor-in-Chief of the Eurasian Metals Magazine, particularly stressed that it was already the third meeting of this kind in Moscow and number 3, as known, is symbolic and expresses constancy: In this case it showed that the decision by leaders of Britain’s Metal Bulletin and Russia’s Eurasian Metals to start a series of conferences in Russia was far-sighted. The theme of the present discussion underlined the correctness of this choice even more. As you know, he said, Russia ranks first in the world by its iron ore reserves. Besides, the country possesses grandiose sources of coal, natural gas, energy and other resources to make steel. In his words, participants of the summit could expect an interesting exchange of opinions on how to exploit this potential the best way, i.e. to the advantage of the national economy and national business as well as for the benefit of world markets.
Welcoming delegates, who came to Moscow, Yevgeny Shashkov pointed out that there were representatives of the famous corporations, such as Arcelor, ThyssenKrupp, Kobe Steel, Nippon Steel, U.S. Steel, Corus, Glencore Int., Shanghai Baosteel Group, Duferco, Marcegaglia SpA and many others. On behalf of the organizers the Editor-in-Chief of Eurasian Metals also expressed a deep gratitude to the summit’s sponsors.
Robert Jones, Metal Bulletin’s Steel Editor, stated that he personally was impressed by large achievements of the Russian steel industry, which, regardless of difficult problems after the collapse of the Soviet Union, managed in a short time to turn into a dynamically growing sector. Companies implemented their consolidation plans, restructured production and accumulated considerable financial resources that other countries could be envious of. In the opinion of Robert Jones, Russians are entering an interesting period: companies start forming themselves as multinational. They have strategic advantages, which make it possible to overcome the dependence on the geographic location. A whole number of such companies enter the borrowings’ market, obtain more funds and, hence, an opportunity to expand the sphere of their activities. All this helps them prepare well for the next round of the steel industry’s global consolidation. It all means that previous steps were sufficiently reasonable, concluded Robert Jones and added that participants of the conference have a chance to discuss this aspect in Moscow and comprehend the latest trends.

ON RELATIONS BETWEEN BUSINESS AND STATE

1.
Andrei Deineko
Director,
Department of Industry,
Ministry of Industry and Energy,
Russian Federation

By its volume of steelmaking Russia ranks fourth in the world yielding to China, Japan and the U.S., while it is placed second by export shipments of metal products.
In 2005 the growth of production in the metallurgy continues, though by slower rates. So, in the period between January and April the production of finished rolled stock and steel increased 5.8% and 3.5% respectively as compared with the same period of last year. At the same time, export shipments of metal products went up because of high demand and favorable prices on world markets.
It is necessary to note institutional changes. By 2004 the process of the steel industry’s consolidation was, in fact, over. There emerged the six national players in Russia, which were commensurable in size with leaders of the world metallurgy and quite competitive. Almost all of them were actively buying raw material assets (coal and ore) as well as drawing up their own logistics. Strengthening the course toward the vertical integration was stipulated by the necessity of controlling costs and by the desire to insure themselves from possible changes in markets’ conditions. Prospects for a further enlargement of Russian steel companies are connected with their expansion abroad; countries of Eastern Europe and the CIS represent the main direction of this expansion.
Meanwhile, by the start of 2004 in Russia itself reserves for extensive development were practically exhausted. A further increase in melting steel is already impossible without large investments. There remain only insignificant reserves of capacities to produce rolled stock. That is why it is important to ensure a favorable investment climate so as to maintain the growth. However, this fact does not mean that no funds have been invested in enterprises’ development. All leading steel companies keep implementing extensive investment programs. In 2004 there was a considerable growth of investments (by 2.5 times). Capital investments per 1 ton of melted steel exceeded the level of the industrially developed countries by $25 to $35 a ton. Investments were directed to bring products’ quality in line with requirements of the world market as well as to implement automation and computerization of technological processes. Some of them were used for adjacent production facilities and development of the raw material base.
The selection of development directions will be possibly done in the nearest future: it is to be either a further growth of export shipments with prospects for its rates slowing down as foreign markets will be getting saturated or an active switchover to domestic demand as a result of significant acceleration of developing metal processing sectors. Both steelmakers and the State intend to give their preference to the latter. At present, less than 50% of steel rolled products are consumed on the domestic market. There is no doubt that the task of stirring up the domestic market assumes the participation of the State. This participation includes state orders, incentives to develop the most important metal-consuming sectors (assemblage of motor vehicles, pipeline transport, shipbuilding, aircraft industry), implementation of investment programs by natural monopolies (RAO UES of Russia, Gazprom, Russian Railways JSC, Transneft) and a number of other directions.
Lately, the competition has become more acute on foreign markets, especially on the market of steel products. Today, entire States are engaged in it, not individual companies. Such a competition is demonstrated by protectionist measures introduced in the U.S., by trade barriers in China, the EU and some countries of Latin America. Over 45% of Russian export shipments are products with a low added value: ore, scrap, cast iron, ingots, slabs and blanks for re-rolling. At the same time, in 2004 the country’s import shipments, including metal contained in machinery and equipment, already exceeded 20% of the domestic market’s capacity. After Russia’s accession to the WTO volumes of such import shipments may go up.
The increase in Russian enterprises’ competitiveness depends, to a large extent, on the state of the legislation concerning the investment, customs-tariff and tax policies. In particular, it is expedient to introduce "tax vacations" (for the profit tax) for 3 to 5 years after commissioning new production facilities, to restore privileges as regards taxes on profit that is used for capital construction needs, to revoke customs import duties on equipment, which cannot be made in Russia.
The next important problem is the limited nature of ore raw materials’ explored reserves. There are deposits of practically all critical sorts of raw materials in Russia but at present their reserves are not attractive to investors. The geological prospecting is in a crisis. The extracted volumes of ores are not made up for by the increment of reserves. This results in a steady reduction of the ore-and-raw material potential of the metallurgy. In the last 10 years there has been neither thorough prospecting nor approval of reserves in any large field of hard minerals for the metallurgy.
Over 300,000 workers are employed by the Russian steel industry’s ten major enterprises alone. That is why the industry’s problems are problems of not only owners and managers of these enterprises but of the State as well. That is why the State should not be looked at as just a mechanism of taxation and excessive regulation of the industry. In fact, we are seeking not a confrontation but a dialogue.

2.
Vladimir Lisin
Chairman,
Board of Directors,
Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works,
Russia

The Russian metallurgy reached such a level in its development, when the problem of constructive cooperation between the State and the industry became extremely important. The necessity of such a cooperation is due to a whole number of circumstances.
At present, there are two main trends in the world economy: the globalization and regional integration. The former provides for forming a single world space of economically free transference of goods and services, resources and capitals. The main participant of the competition is transnational corporations. The second trend is in no way weaker. It is the regionalization of economic zones consolidating countries by groups. It is possible to single out three main regional power centers. They are the North American center concentrated in the U.S., Southeast Asia and China, the European center with the EU becoming its core. In each of such regions governments are conducting a coordinated policy that benefits their producers. In fact, there is a unification of countries underway so as to jointly fight for resources and sales markets. The State’s activity does not go away to the past but it is being transferred, to a large extent, to the level of regional economic associations. Companies of countries, which are members of such associations, get assistance not only from their governments but at the regional level as well. Hence, Russian companies have to compete on the world market with rivals, which have a double support.
In these conditions Russia needs to determine its strategy. The question is quite concrete. Acting as an independent power center we will hardly be able to compete with companies that get support from region’s countries. It is unlikely that they will be glad to have our equal presence on their markets. So, there is only one option left: to actively work on establishing our own regional economic grouping.
Today, countries of the CIS account in the aggregate for over 11% of the world steel production that is about equal to the volume of production (13%) by the already formed North American center. Today, however, mainly political groupings are being established on the former USSR space. Their economic benefits can hardly be figured out. At the same time, the objective foundation of engineering and economic cooperation, territorial proximity, similar level of economic development and industrial ties are still around. But so far efforts are wasted on the economic dispute between potential participants of the integration. Still there is no comprehension of the fact that a coordinated development strategy can provide much more benefits than the work for oneself only.
In recent years there was a change in stages of the developed countries’ industrial policy: "the harsh option" of address support was replaced with "the soft policy". This natural transition took place, when industries were largely modernized and restructured becoming able to compete on the world market.
The Russian economy has not passed so far through either the harsh stage or particularly the soft one in its industrial policy under the market conditions. Today, Russia does not have such a long-term strategy as the one of the EU. There is practically no active state support of producers that is based on both traditional and innovation principles. We still have a prevailing view that the market will solve all the problems, including the one with selecting development priorities. At the same time, the cooperation between the State and business is especially pressing. The steel consumption in countries, which entered the stage of the post-industrial development, is stable due to their economies’ balanced structure. Today, our consumption of steel per capita is 2 to 3 times lower. A further economic development will depend, to a large extent, on the development of metal-consuming sectors.
In the future, competitive advantages of our steel industry will depend very much on cooperation with the State. It is important to keep in mind that it will have to compete with companies, which will use the potential that they received from efficient state help at the previous stage as well as the active support by national and regional structures at a new quality level of innovation competition.
From our point of view, the main directions of cooperation between the State and industries will be as follows:
– determining state strategic priorities of the economy’s development and guidelines to work out long-term programs at the industries’ corporate level;
– coordinating development strategy at the regional level with the use of foreign experience;
– state investment policy;
– regulating external economic ties, significant intensification of support for Russian exporters;
– policy in the sphere of natural monopolies; when a tariff policy of natural monopolies poorly takes into account legitimate interests of other industries, this is an obvious signal that the development of the domestic market is not among priorities of the state economic policy;
– cooperation in restructuring the industry;
– cooperation in the social sphere;
– cooperation in the sphere of ecology.
There is a need for a clear-cut development of this strategy’s organizational aspect, for a specific set of executors and a distribution of roles between direct participants, organizations, companies, the State, the scientific community, educational centers and other market participants.


ON RAW MATERIALS 1.
Andrei Varichev
General Director,
Mikhailovsky Mining & Concentrating Mill,
Russia

The main world reserves of iron ore are concentrated in several countries: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Australia, China, Brazil, India, Sweden and the South African Republic. Its largest exporters are Australia, Brazil and India, which account for about 80% of the world export volume. The CIS countries (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) are barely present on the world market of ore, although their aggregate reserves in terms of iron amount to 26.3 billion tons or 38% of the world reserves. This exceeds many times reserves in Brazil, Australia and China ( 5.5, 2.4 and 3.8 times respectively).
The aggregate production volume of all ore mining enterprises in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan is smaller than that of CVRD and the intensity of using reserves is one of the lowest in the world. By volumes of extracting iron ore Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan rank fourth, sixth and tenth respectively.
In 2002, thanks to the growth of the world economy and the economy of China especially, the world consumption of steel started going up rapidly. This resulted in the increase of prices for metal rolled products. After some delay prices for iron ore raw material also began rising. The slump in the world mineral resource sector gave place to the upsurge but the sector itself was unready to satisfy the increased demand. As a results, despite record volumes of ore production (1.1 billion tons in 2004) the global shortage of iron ore raw material happened. China’s demand is the biggest because this country consumes over one third of all iron ore raw material being produced in the world.
Australian and Brazilian ores are distinguished by the high content of iron (between 60% and 68%) and that makes it possible to avoid the highly expensive concentrating process. Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh ores are mainly poor ferriferous quartzites containing between 30% and 35% of iron. They require a ‘must’ concentration.
Mining enterprises of Brazil and Australia are located near deep-water ports and often own railroads that link ports and deposits as well as ports themselves. Mining enterprises in the CIS are far from deep-water ports and the transportation infrastructure of CIS countries is not sufficiently developed. It results in increased expenses. Ore mining and processing enterprises lack investments in modernization and renewal of production facilities, in overburden operations.
In these conditions it is expedient to unite mining enterprises of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan into a major (by world standards) Eurasian mining-and-melting company. This company could include such enterprises as Russia’s Mikhailovsky and Lebedinsky mining & concentrating mills, Kazakhstan’s Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky Mining Production Association, Ukraine’s Yuzhny and Inguletsky mining & concentrating mills. The consolidation of these enterprises would let establish the world’s fourth iron ore mining company having the annual iron ore production volume of 78 million tons and potentially being capable of raising the extraction volume up to 100 million tons.
Such a company would have obvious advantages:
– a credit attractiveness of a large consortium would be much higher than the one of its enterprises taken separately;
– there would be a chance to attract capital through placing shares at stock exchanges;
– an investment program would make it possible to develop all process stages of the mining and melting cycle as well as port and railroad infrastructure;
– export shipment flows would be optimized through supplying needed raw materials to customers from the nearest mining enterprise;
– positions for a successful competition with world producers of iron ore would be strengthened.
An Eurasian mining-and-melting company would supply ores to markets of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, countries of Eastern Europe.

2.
Dmitry Sushchev
Chief of Metallurgical Direction,
Department of Corporate Finances,
Ernst & Young Co.,
Russia

Recent years were marked in the Russian steel industry by active acquisitions of raw material enterprises. As a result, all more or less big assets turned out to be in structures of large steel holdings or raw material companies, such as the Eurasian mining-and-melting company (EMMC) that is being formed. At the same time, not all steelmakers happened to be in equal conditions; some of them (for example, Mechel) are provided with raw materials in abundance, while others (such as ÌÌÊ) face a critical lack of their own raw material base.
We think that the adequate provision with its own raw material base is a key factor of steelmakers’ competitiveness.
In recent years the raw material market turned 180 degrees. If earlier this was a market of consumers and metallurgical mills dictated suppliers their conditions, today it is a market of salesman: the coking coal market is dominated by Mechel, the market of iron ore is under Uralskaya stal/EMMC. The continuing consolidation is strengthening positions of raw material suppliers. One of its results is the tough confrontation between MMK and companies that may get integrated in EMMC. Shareholders of Kazakhstan’s Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky Mining Production Association and Ukrainian mining and concentrating mills can hold talks with both Uralskaya stal/EMMC and other Russian iron and steel mills (for example, with MMK) so as to ensure the best terms of mergers or sales. But, in our opinion, shareholders of Uralskaya stal have the biggest chances. And it is not only because of flexible negotiating positions of Alisher Usmanov and his partners but it is also because EMMC, the future world fourth iron ore mining company, will be valued by investors much higher than a company, which is a raw material appendage to an iron and steel mill.
Our analysis shows that the market value of a company directly depends on availability of control over raw material assets. For example, the fact that EvrazHolding was provided with raw materials just for 70% was the reason why it received about $3 billion less from the initial public offering (IPO) as compared with Mechel’s IPO. Thus, Mechel repaid with interest its investments in raw material assets. It is clear that iron and steel mills, which are provided with raw materials to an even lesser extent than EvrazHolding, should not hurry with IPO.
Are there any other possibilities to buy raw material assets in Russia? Unfortunately, no. The rough truth is that despite all the richness of domestic raw material resources the current market situation is, in fact, a tough struggle of steelmakers for each undeveloped field, which is accompanied by considerable overpayments, serious investments and waste of time.
The analysis proves that Russian iron and steel mills, which do not have their own raw material assets, are doomed to hold talks on sale or merger with raw material companies or competitors. They will have to conduct these talks from the weak position. Chances to strengthen it in Russia in the middle term are already exhausted and they will be exhausted in the CIS in the nearest future. At the same time, there are chances to do this beyond the CIS. Right now the International Metallurgical Group Ernst & Young is engaged in an investigation, which consists of close talks on a possible sale of operating assets both in extraction of iron ore and production of coking coal. There are already several companies, which are considering a possibility to sell such assets.
3.
Alexei Mojarov
Commodities Branch,
Division on Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities,
UNCTAD,
Switzerland

In 2004 the production of iron ore raw material increased more than 12% and reached the highest levels. Almost all producers raised the output of iron ore. Six countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India and the U.S.) accounted for about 90% of the growth. Not production, but growth that in 2004 amounted to 133 million tons. Brazil, Australia and China, which are the largest producers, put out over 50% of the world volume. If to add India to them, then, the four countries would account for almost two thirds of all world production. So, the concentration is very high.
During the last decades the iron ore industry passed through several cycles of consolidation. Today, the three largest companies (Brazilian CVRD, British Rio Tinto and British-Australian BHP Billiton) account for over one third of the iron ore world production.
In 2004 the Big Three accounted for 60 to 65 million tons of production capacities. By our forecasts, they will also have a considerable part of new capacities. Rio Tinto will apparently put in operation 30 million tons of capacities more; as for BHP Billiton, by the end of 2006 it will commission 8 million tons and probably 2.27 million tons more before 2008; in its turn, CVRD will add 89 million tons and in the nearest four years it should reach the upper limit of 300 million tons. The growth of capacities in CIS countries and China can also exceed the declared plan. There is some uncertainty with respect to India.
As for potential new market players, the Big Three can obviously encounter a growing competition but not from beginners. In order to enter a market, it is necessary to have considerable financial resources, especially for investments in transport infrastructure. The largest fields with big financial possibilities will have competitive advantages. Producers of the second line, i.e. companies from China, India and Russia, will probably have the same advantages. The representative of the Mikhailovsky Mining & Concentrating Mill clearly described possibilities to produce and sell iron ore raw material in Russia and other CIS countries. I agree with his conclusions and prerequisites that he described.
In our opinion, in the short term available capacities to extract iron ore will be in keeping with the demand for it. In a longer term, presumably in 2007, the supply of iron ore will exceed the demand for it. As regards the situation with the supply will be tense till the end of 2006 but it will abate during 2007. The disappearance of the spot market will serve as an indicator of such a relaxation. Producers of iron ore can save on their plans after 2008.
In recent years the company CVRD has been the initiator and leader with respect to determining prices for raw materials. Other companies set their prices taking into account its actions. It should be noted that a new phenomenon emerged in 2003 and 2004 – spot contracts and spot prices, something that was absent from the market of iron ore raw materials for a long time. Spot contracts and prices appeared with the growth of steel production and consumption of iron ore in China being against the background. Above all, it concerns contracts between Chinese importer of iron ore and India’s producer exporters. Those prices on the spot market very often are prices for small consignments. In 2006 prices apparently will remain at a high level. The year 2007 will be a crucial one, the price market will become balanced and, later, there will be an about-face. The difference in prices, which steel companies pay for Australian and Brazilian ore and which originates from different freight rates, will remain an important point. Future negotiations will be influenced by long-term contracts and investments by Chinese steel companies.

4.
Dr. Carlo Caiany
Director,
Caiani & Company,
Australia

The representative of the country, which has leading positions on the raw material market, assesses the situation on the steel market precisely from these positions.
It may be stated that now producers of iron ore get incredible profits. In the last three years prices, in fact, increased 100%. Even before that the margin was not bad but now it reaches almost 70%. The main thing is to continue ore extraction. Prices are also up for coking coal. Now they are higher even for not the most expensive kinds.
Russian companies are integrated. They have their own sources of iron or and coking coal. They managed to keep low production costs. Yes, investments should be made in production, technologies. But, as Mr. Caiany believes, the reverse integration is extremely important to producers. Raw materials of the A category should not be necessarily bought. It is quite possible to work with raw materials of the B category as well. It will be provided by a whole number of companies in Australia. There are good opportunities in Brazil as well. There are very attractive fields with quite good quality of ore in Russia. Mr. Caiani recommends Russian steelmakers with the already available reverse integration to continue developing fields in Siberia keeping in mind a prospect for some export shipments to China. Maybe, it will make sense to get the Chinese side involved in this? Mrs. Xie Qihua, the Chairperson of Shanghai Baosteel Group, has come to Russia obviously for some particular reason. Her company surely wants to fight with CVRD and BHP.
The speaker expressed his conviction that the reverse integration is a matter of time. He decisively insisted that steel companies should preserve their channels of supplies, especially now, when they are making good profits. In his opinion, steelmakers cannot raise prices anymore.
In the 1970s Australia made a very strong spurt. Enormous funds were invested in projects that were considered crazy at that time. The climate in Australia’s south-east is droughty, hot. Companies did one smart thing: that was a long-term strategy project. They invested enormous funds in something that was 450 km away, where there was nothing around, where nobody was living and where only lizards survived in that climate. Their own government provided help, Japanese made investments. And now these are important ore-producing areas. In the nearest 10 to 15 years Russia will also experience a boom in developing mineral resources and, thus, it is necessary to work out a new strategy so as to skillfully use its gigantic potential.
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5.
Arkady Vunder
Director for Economic Relations,
Serovsky Plant of Ferroalloys,
Russia

As a rule, producers of ferrochrome that have no their own raw material base do not keep afloat for long. The exception is China, which imports 100% of chrome ore and this inflow is increasing quite strongly. In 2002 China imported 1,160,000 tons of chrome ore and in 2004 its amount almost doubled: 2,147,000 tons. Because the country’s labor force and other resources are relatively cheap, Chinese are successfully competing on the world market with main producers of ferrochrome.
Completely integrated producers, i.e. those extracting ore, putting out ferrochrome and stainless steel, can be counted in the world on the fingers of one hand. The leading example is the company Outokumpu. The relatively recent merger of two South African firms is a move towards the horizontal integration. The similar way in principle is used by the company Kermas Ltd. as well.
This group, in which our Serovsky plant of ferroalloys is also integrated, has been set up literally the other day. What does this merger give? First, it lets position on the market of ferrochrome. It is enough to say that today enterprises of Kermas account for over 20% of the world production volume of high-carbon ferrochrome and over 40% of low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome. Today, over 50% of world reserves of chrome ore are concentrated at the group’s enterprises. The integration in the group also provides an access to technological achievements through the joint accumulated experience. Schemes of supplying raw materials are optimized.
Today the market is good, we are at the peak of prices for ferrochrome. But already the IV quarter promises their certain reduction. That is why we should get engaged in raising the production efficiency and reducing costs.
According to forecasts, in 10 years the need for ferrochrome may double. If today world producers provide 6 million tons of carbonaceous ferrochrome, then, 12 million tons will be needed. That is why many active market players, including the Russian ones, are planning to increase capacities to produce ferrochrome. For example, the Chelyabinsky integrated electrometallurgical plant reports that by 2007 it intends to raise production of high-carbon ferrochrome from 120,000 tons to between 300,000 and 350,000 tons; our neighbors in Kazakhstan will provide 400,000 tons. Kermas Ltd. will not be left behind. In the nearest future it will increase the production volume by 200,000 tons. As for our plant, we will widely use the experience of our colleagues and build up production.

6.
Leonid Smirnov
Uralsky Institute of Metals,
Russia

Production and consumption of vanadium stick to the level of the steel market. There is a connection between them: from 25 to 60 tons of vanadiun are needed for 1 million tons of steel. In 2004 the world use of vanadium reached a record level of 51,000 tons, while, like in 2003, the consumption exceeded its production. The shortage grew up mainly because of the increased demand in China and North America. It caused the sharp growth of prices that in April of 2005 amounted to $55 per 1 kg of vanadium pentaoxide.
The main direction of the extended use of vanadium is the replacement of ordinary steels with the microalloyed ones so as to reduce customer’s consumption of the metal that may be advantageous to both partners. This replacement is important for not only reducing the weight of structures and machinery but also for reducing the total volume of steel-melting that results in saving energy and resources as well as in cutting down harmful discharges to the environment.
Evaluation calculations show that in the nearest 5 years the world production of vanadium can go up to 75,000 tons year-on-year. There is a potential possibility in Russia to raise the volume of vanadium in marketable products up to between 15,000 and 16,000 tons. In this case Russia’s role on the world market of vanadium will significantly increase .
The above-mentioned world production of vanadium can ensure the rise of steel- melting volume up to 1.5 billion tons year-on-year.

7.
Alexei Korovin
Chairman,
Coordination Council,
Scrap Processing Industry,
Russia

In 2004 the merchantable scrap picking in Russia went up 30% and amounted to 28.8 million tons, the record level in the last 15 years. Regardless of the fact that the increase in scrap sales took place mainly because of export (it grew up 67%), its domestic consumption was also up 7%. Russian consumers were fully supplied with scrap and this is proved by its considerable leftovers accumulated in enterprises’ scrap yards, which will be enough for supplies during 2 to 3 months.
The reasons for the growth are quite obvious. Purchasing prices for scrap were higher by 50% on average than in 2003. The steadily high price resulted in a more efficient scrap picking. This has to do with the obsolescent scrap that requires big expenses on dismantling, delivery and reprocessing.
The availability of a major metal fund in Russia will have a significant role for no less than 8 to 10 years. Since in the previous 10 to 15 years the Russian industry practically was not modernized, the colossal obsolescence of equipment happened. Today it is more beneficial economically to turn many plants into scrap and to build the new ones than to operate and repair the former. That is why with high prices being maintained the volume of scrap picking in the nearest years may reach 40 million tons a year and that very much exceeds the need of the domestic market.
The scrap’s high yield made an enormous number of firms (including the random and unprofessional ones) come to this market. Lately, however, the steep downfall of prices has been taking place. It is clear that such a decrease has not been expected. Many enterprises have suffered big losses. There are all the reasons to believe that the downfall will not be short-term. In fact, it is a turning point of the trend that has been in effect since 1998.
In the nearest 1.5 years up to one third of small and mid-sized enterprises may stop doing business. There are expectations that steelmakers will penetrate this market. But it will be rather a tribute to the fashion. Scrap is neither an ore nor coal; the ownership of a scrap-picking enterprise in itself does not guarantee efficient operations on such a highly competitive market. The fashion will go away in a year or a year and a half.

CHINA: THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION
1.

2.
V.B. Garg
General Manager,
Marketing,
Mittal Steel Temirtau,
Kazakhstan

The representative of Mittal Steel shared his views on a possible market development. As expected, in the coming two years rates of the global economic growth will amount to 4% year-on-year. The economic state will be determined in Brazil, Russia, China, other countries, where the growth will be exceeding 5%. The steel production growth is expected to be over 4% and that will be lower than last year but considerably higher than 2 to 3 years ago.
Then, Mr. Garg started assessing global scenarios. In his opinion, the volume of steel consumption will be obviously progressing with China’s needs taken into account. China’s general prospects: the demand will be going up until the country will not get mature in steel consumption. This will happen in 5 to 7 years. Besides, the situation will depend on the scale of its construction activity: Olympic Games are planned to be held in China. Mr. Garg believes that demand will surpass supply. However, the 2005 situation with its expected dumping can change everything.
What are the forecasts? They look considerably more positive for Asia than for the U.S. and the EU. China will still remain the largest player on the market of consumption growth, while the growth in other countries is rather slow. The annual considerable increase in prices for iron ore and coking coal is a global trend. In the words of the representative of Mittal Steel, the consolidation is higher in the raw material sector: three producers account for 75% of iron ore, while in the steel production 10% of companies provide only 30% of the world production volume. Thus, there is an obvious need for consolidation, which will contribute to optimization of capital investments in new capacities.

3.
Antonio Marcegaglia,
CEO,
Marcegaglia SpA,
Italy

The CEO of Marcegaglia SpA analyzed such a complicated problem as pricing. It is known that steel is a raw material with a low added value and a more or less similar level of prices, their relative stability could be expected on world markets. As a matter of fact, although right up to the end of 2001 prices for hot-rolled products in various regions (the U.S., China and others) were different, the trend was directed toward their approximation due to the increase in productivity.
However, everything has changed lately. Serious fluctuations of prices are taking place within several quarters, several months and even within several weeks and days. There are big differences in prices for the same products even in one and the same regions. Prices are not always linked to costs, even if these costs are alternating. For example, galvanized steel wire sometimes costs less than cold-rolled products. So, what is going on?
Responding to this question, Mr. Antonio Marcegaglia, drew attention to the high level of consolidation in the steel industry and to the fact that because of it now there is a possibility to successfully control pricing. The world’s five largest steelmakers put out 210 million tons of steel. Now a certain role also belongs to regional players, which enter the stage. Several years ago not a single major producer operated in different regions. Now there are three such producers. Surely, there will be more like them. The sudden growth of consumption led to intensive use of companies’ potential. Production capacities are up and they are used much more actively as compared with the last 3 to 4 years.
In the speaker’s opinion, the consolidation process will be accelerating. He referred to the CIS, Russia: companies from these countries vigorously buy assets abroad, while American companies, for example, act with apparent caution. There emerge such aggressive players as Mittal. And, certainly, there will be more of them. Many pundits expect that China’s political figures will provide support to the idea of setting up steel giants in Asia. So, the consolidation, which is going on rapidly, will become even stronger.
The Chinese industry is surpassing industries in other countries by its growth rates, consumption and production volumes. This is the most important market in the world. China is able to seriously influence the international price formation. The Chinese government can do a lot of things: to close down enterprises, limit access, manage consolidation, license, provide tax breaks, introduce quotas, control import and export shipments of raw materials through licenses, put limits for major enterprises. In other words, as Mr. Marcegaglia believes, there emerges a macroeconomic control, which will obviously have an impact on world prices.
The speaker particularly noted the increasing difficulty with short-term price forecasts. He pointed out that calculations on various products and markets, which were made three to four weeks ago, already became outdated. In his opinion, prices will hardly get stabilized: after the downfall they will go up again. And this new challenge became rather serious lately. Under these conditions the flexibility of response is very important: this is an absolute requirement so as to maintain the system’s profitability.
As for the company Marcegaglia SpA, units of which are located mainly in Italy, its personnel numbers over 6,000 employees. In 2005 the company plans to get $3.3 billion in consolidated sales. The main direction of its activity is to process steel and make pipes.
COMPANIES AND MARKETS
1.
Alexander Ushakov
Member,
Board of Directors,
Magnitogrsk Iron & Steel Works,
Russia

The main task of the marketing strategy at the Magnitogrsk Iron & Steel Works (ÌÌÊ) is to maintain a long-term competitiveness on the metal-rolling market.
In 2004 ÌÌÊ put out 11.3 million tons of steel. Its share in Russia’s national steel production is about 20%. The enterprise is developing dynamically. Since 1996 the output of metal products has increased 1.7 times and the volume of supplies to the domestic market has gone up 2.5 times (from 2 million tons to 5 million tons). At present, the ÌÌÊ share of the Russian market of metal products amounts to 19%.
In the future, supplies to the domestic market will be determined by the Russian economy’s development and, above all, by development of metal-consuming industries. These are the mechanical engineering industry, which at present accounts for 32% of Russia’s total volume of metal rolled sock consumption, the pipe industry (22%), other metallurgical production enterprises, mainly those, which make hardware (12%), and the construction industry (30%). The sectorial structure of MMK sales is in line with the structure of Russia’s consumption of metal rolled stock.
Depending on rates of the GDP growth, the rise of metal products’ supplies by MMK to the domestic market in the period till 2010 is forecasted at the level of 1.5 to 2.5 million tons year-on-year with bringing their volumes up to between 6.5 million tons and 7.5 million tons year-on-year. In the nearest 5 to 7 years export shipments will remain stable, about 5 million tons year-on-year.
ÌÌÊ is one of the most advanced integrated iron & steel mills in Russia. During the period between 1996 and 2004 about $1.6 billion were invested in technical re-equipment and modernization of its basic assets. This amounted to about 25% of investments in Russia’s steel enterprises. At present, the updated long-term program of engineering development for the period till 2013 is being implemented. In 2005 three new section-rolling mills with the productivity of over 2 million tons of rolled stock year-on-year will be put in operation. In 2006 two electric furnaces with the capacity of 2 million tons each will be commissioned. Also, the installation of a new steel continuous casting machine is provided for. As a result, production of finished rolled stock will amount to 12 million tons year-on-year.

2.
Konstantin Semerikov
General Director,
Pipe Metallurgical Company,
Russia

In the last decade the world production of steel pipes did not experience any sharp cyclic fluctuations and, as a whole, it increased 40%. Its structure practically has not changed and has been determined, above all, by end use of products’ types. Welded pipes with small and medium diameters account for about 58%, the share of large-diameter welded pipes amounts up to 12%, the share of seamless pipes comes up to 30%.
China is the largest maker of pipes (25.9%) followed by Western Europe (19.9%), North America (13.7%) and Japan (10.5%). In the last decade Russia’s share has considerably changed and at present it has reached 7.7% restoring positions of the early 1990s. As for production of seamless pipes, the share of our country exceeds 12%.
The volume of Russian pipe production after the crisis in the second half of the 1990s demonstrates a steady trend towards growth. In 2004 consumers were provided with 6 million tons of pipes, including 1 million tons of large-diameter pipes and 2.6 million tons of seamless pipes.
Serious consolidation processes took place in the Russian pipe industry. The leading role belongs to the three major holdings, their aggregate production volume on the Russian market amounts to about 84%. The Pipe Metallurgical Company is the largest with the share equaling 44%. The ChTPZ and UMC groups account for 24% and 16% respectively.
The Pipe Metallurgical Company is dominating in segments of threaded and seamless pipes for oil transportation purposes (OCTG and Line Pipe), the shares of which on the Russian market come to 71% and 73% respectively. In 2004 the company, which accounts for 75% to 98% of Russian export shipments of seamless pipes, supplied about 780,000 tons of pipes to over 60 countries. Having completed the assets’ consolidation the company worked out a development strategy for the forthcoming 10-year period as well as a business plan till 2010. During this period the program of strategic capital investments providing for $1 billion will be implemented.
The company’s strategy is aimed at making it one of the world leaders in the segment of seamless threaded and line pipes (OCTG and Line Pipe) and strengthening its status as a regional supplier of large-diameter trunk pipes for oil and gas pipeline systems.
As far as innovation developments are concerned, the company implements joint programs of scientific and engineering cooperation with the leading Russian customers, such as Gazprom, Transneft, Surgutneftegaz, TNK-ÂÐ. This May it signed a three-year agreement with TNK-ÂÐ on strategic cooperation. Similar agreements are being worked out and being prepared for signing with other largest structures of the oil-and-gas complex of Russia and the CIS.
And in conclusion I want to stress once again: being the leader of the Russian pipe industry, the Pipe Metallurgical Company intends to get completely integrated in the world pipe market.

3.
Dmitry Goroshkov
Sales Director,
Severstal JSC,
Russia

The year 2004 was one of the most successful for Russian steelmakers. Most of them set records in proceeds and profits, created some margin of strength for development. If the trend is to be a long-term one, this, in my opinion, will become one of the key factors of Russian companies’ global competitiveness. There are enough grounds to make consumption of steel per capita in Russia double in the nearest 8 to 10 years. However, will it be possible to reach so high rates of growth? In order to answer this question, the situation in large consuming industries should be considered.
In Russia these are the automotive, mechanical engineering, pipe and construction industries. By different data, their aggregate consumption of metal products amount to between 70% and 80%. We are witnessing a steadier growth in the mechanical engineering industry, quite good indexes in construction, sharp volatility of metal rolled stock consumption at pipe-making plants and reduction of metal consumption volumes in the automotive industry.
On the one hand, the statistics for the mechanical engineering industry is the best. But, on the other hand, we note a serious separation of its segments. There is a very rapid growth in segments that ensure quick satisfaction of needs of, say, oilmen. There is a stagnation in segments oriented on long-term investment programs, for example, in the oil-and-chemical mechanical engineering. The situation is becoming more acute in the electrical industry, where the competition is getting stronger because of electric motors from China. Will Russian producers manage to endure or they will be gradually forced out from the market by foreign competitors? In any case, it means that quality requirements to metal rolled stock will be increasing.
There are serious jumps and falls in the pipe industry caused by investment projects. The industry awaits an implementation of the very serious projects in Eastern Siberia, which will be done by Gazprom and Transneft. We assume that their implementation will result in a sharp growth of metal consumption in the pipe industry in the nearest 2 to 3 years already. Instead of the traditional average annual growth by 4% to 5% we will witness, maybe, a doubled increment in a number of segments and, above all, in the segment of trunk pipes. We assume that supplies of large-diameter pipes will increase up to 2.5 million tons already in 2008 as against 1.5 million tons in 2004.
The construction industry demonstrated a steady growth in recent years. But since mid-2004 we have been noting the slowdown of construction rates and reduction of demand for steel rolled products. This year there has been no growth yet. This applies to section rolled products and coated sheet. No big positive changes can be expected without solving such system questions as development of mortgage construction and reform of communal services.
For several years already Severstal has been conducting its sales policy aimed at providing all possible support to the domestic market. Ours is the first company, which started selling over 50% of its products in Russia. This year’s task is to increase the sales share up to 57%. The company’s structure is such that we supply 13% of our products to the automotive industry, 20% of them go to the fuel-and- energy complex; the largest volume of products accounts for regional distribution.
We selected Russia’s 11 most important clients: companies, which are strategically significant to us, and set a system of a closer cooperation. One of the important methods of operation is the switchover to long-term relations. Several years ago we started practicing long-term contracts, first, in the automotive and pipe industries. Now we extended this practice to the mechanical engineering industry.
We consider important the program of investments in putting out new kinds of products. Last year as a whole we managed to master 23 new kinds of products and to raise volumes of their shipments by 80%. In general, there is a feeling that precisely this will be a leitmotiv of the future struggle for consumers.
In the long term I foresee a situation, in which Severstal will ship 70% or even 80% of its products to Russian clients. This is precisely the situation that exists in the world’s developed countries.


4.
Olga Naumova
General Director,
Severstal-Metiz,
Russia

In my address I would like to touch upon forecasts of the state of the hardware markets both in Russia and the CIS and, above all, in Ukraine and Byelorussia as well as the influence of these markets on the European one.
What can be said of the Russian market? Today, we produce some 2.5 million tons of hardware, the lion’s share of which is consumed domestically (approximately 2 million tons in 2004). The rates of the Russian market’s growth are not very fast, from 2% to 4% a year, but this growth is steady. By 2010 the market will increase up to approximately 2.8 million tons and in 10 years it will exceed 3 million tons. Russian consumers mainly use the Russia-made hardware products and the country exports, to a larger extent, semi-finished products and wire as well as simpler, in terms of production and quality, products, such as construction nails. As for all other items the production and consumption are balanced, i.e. a Russian producer works for a Russian consumer. However, no more than 50% to 55% of capacities at the largest hardware enterprises are used, although there are much more of them.
In the last two years there have been significant changes. The sector has become the highly consolidated one. Above all, the company Severstal-Metiz, which has integrated three leading producers, has had a part in it. Today, we account for about 30% of the market. There have been makers of section rolled products, which have taken an active part in the process. It is ÌÌÊ that has bought two hardware plants and the Mechel group, which is consolidating plants in Russia and countries of Eastern Europe.
At present, 5 main players are dominating the market. As a result, the market has become more manageable and efficient. The profitability is going up despite the growth of prices for basic raw materials.
The hardware sector in Russia is not perceived as the key one. The sector operates practically in the conditions of direct international competition, with no protection from state structures and under a strong pressure from suppliers of raw materials.
The picture in Ukraine is somewhat different. The share of hardware export shipments amounts to 62%. There is a growth of export shipments to Russia, the market of which is practically open. Ukraine is exporting mainly simple products, such as semi-finished products, wire of ordinary quality being minimally processed. Facing barring customs duties on section rolled stock and rods Ukrainian hardware enterprises tend to export the same rods with the minimal added value so as to avoid the barring customs duty.
Lately, the Ukrainian market has also passed through the consolidation process. The four largest producers account for selling about 80% of hardware products. Until recently, investments in the hardware sector there were small. Consolidated groups, above all, are still exploiting Soviet, low-efficient capacities, which are capable of putting out a product that is not full corresponding to requirements of the European market.
There is no borderline between the Russian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian markets; there are no special barriers on the way of hardware transference inside the CIS. The consolidation allows hardware enterprises with sufficiently low profitability to optimize operations through the capacities’ distribution, consolidation of purchasing functions and more efficient use of resources. However, free capacities, production cheapness factors push us, the producers operating in the Eastern part of the CIS, either to buying assets in Europe or to forming alliances, which make it possible to completely process our semi-finished products for end users on the more powerful European market.
In contrast to the Russian market and even more so to the Ukrainian one, Europe’s market is much larger – some 14 million tons. The share of producers from Russia, Ukraine, China there is insignificant, within 1% to 3%. The European market itself has such a low consolidation that there are grounds for a more intensive and efficient growth on it. There are no serious barriers for us there. Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese producers have an opportunity to enter the European market with semi-finished products and, later, with finished hardware. The only question is who will be more efficient and who can operate better in the changing European situation.
Severstal-Metiz aims at working on the European market. And we feel that we have all the opportunities to become the number 1 company of Europe’ market through increasing production volumes, which is quite simple for us, and supplying semi-finished products to European companies.

RUSSIA’S PROSPECTS
1.
Bernard Serin,
President,
CMI Group,
Belgium

Sharing his thoughts on a possible role of the Russian metallurgy, Bernard Serin pointed out that Russian enterprises can successfully exploit the globalization trend but, first, they will have to modernize equipment so as to ensure a necessary competitiveness. Now the market gets up to 1 billion tons of steel. In the long run this market will be dominated by industrially developed countries. Some experts think that supply will equal 1.6 billion tons. There is no growth of consumption in America and the European Union. The growth in the CIS may amount to 20 million tons. But growth centers will be in Southeast Asia and China.
The president of the CMI Group reminded that Russia is a large exporter of steel and its export shipment have been steadily growing since 1992. Thanks to the raw material base, Russia can ensure the continuation of the profitable growth. If to compare the European Union, China, Japan and the U.S. by the geographical factor, then, by the market growth and by production volume Russia and China immediately stand out as serious competitors. There are neither coal reserves nor oil products in Japan; the European Union also demonstrates a relatively small growth as a result of the accession of new member countries to the EU, which have got there but which have neither coal nor iron ore. In a wider sense West European companies are not integrated: Arcelor, for example, does not extract ore. And, on the contrary, Russian companies seem quite integrated. Japanese, Korean, Chinese companies are integrated partially but so far they are only working out long-term agreements with producers of coal and ore.
Modernization investments in Russia are growing: 10% of proceeds from total sales by the Russian steel industry are spent on modernizing equipment. Since 2003 sales as well as investments have doubled. The latter have reached $1 billion year-on-year. Allocated investments for the next 5 years amount to $10 billion, although, on the other hand, the amount is not that big equaling merely $2 billion a year. In Russia the advantage becomes obvious, if to compare its expenses on wages with the ones in the EU. If this advantage is expressed in money terms, then, it will be equal precisely to $2 billion a year. On the other hand, ore prices are sufficiently high and, again, Russia can make use of it. That may provide additional $2 billion, thinks Mr. Serin.


2.
Antonio Gozzi,
Managing Director,
Duferco,
Switzerland

Antonio Gozzi called the market of the so-called secondary rolled products quite limited. There was an ordinary situation with demand and insufficient supply that resulted in high prices and emergence of new suppliers. In the nearest 12 to 18 months there will be new capacities in the world amounting to approximately 14 million tons year-on-year. The management of Duferco believes that this segment of the market can easily absorb products of the new capacities. Among emerging new capacities Mr. Gozzi mentioned Russia’s NTMK, India’s plant with the production volume of 2 million tons, which will be commissioned between 2006 and 2007, putting in operation of Brazil’s production facilities for 3.6 million tons by the end of 2006 as well as capacities at Azovstal (Ukraine) to be commissioned either by the end of 2005 or in 2006.
Advantages of placing production capacities to produce secondary rolled stock can usually be found in those countries, where the prime cost is sufficiently low: Russia, Ukraine, India, Brazil, Venezuela. At the same time several players are controlling all sources of raw materials. That is why the business is profitable even in those cases, when there are some limits with respect to price ceiling.
Antonio Gozzi shared his reaction to the news about a Russian steel holding’s purchase of an Italian company that makes secondary rolled products putting out approximately 250,000 to 300,000 tons of them year-on-year. In his opinion, there emerges a whole number of new problems for a customer. Slab exporters will have to invest a lot in managing these production and business and to encounter risks since there is a need to expand and enter this secondary rolled stock market.
The managing director of Duferco separately touched upon the question of expediency to build an enterprise "from zero", for example, in Brazil. It costs at least $500 a ton of new capacities. Of course, there are iron ore and cheap labor force but will it be enough for outweighing capital expenses? As for short- and mid-term prospects, the answer, will, probably, be negative. Nevertheless, the long-term analysis shows that development of large projects can justify itself. Duferco’s forecast: this market will grow and reach 45 to 48 million tons by 2007or 2008. Companies are already considering several Greenfield projects. Among them is the project ThyssenKrupp in Brazil, on which a final decision is expected soon. In the opinion of Antonio Gozzi, Venezuela also may be a proper place for arranging inexpensive production with low costs. And Russia, undoubtedly, will be expanding production of blanks thanks to the availability of raw materials.

3.
Luigi Iperti,
Industrial Plants & Machinery President,
Techint,
Italy

Russian steelmakers show quite good economic results, which are comparable, for example, with achievements by two largest companies in Brazil. But are they capable of keeping this advantage in the foreseeable future? Considering this question Luigi Iperti pointed out that the steel production in Russia is concentrated in 5 large companies: they account for 77% of the total output. Such a high production concentration will be, most likely, preserved, and, maybe, companies will emerge that will be competitive globally.
In the opinion of Luigi Iperti, the key factor of the Russian competitiveness is low production costs. Besides Russia, in Latin America only, for example, iron ore costs $55 a ton and coking coal has a comparable price. But the most indicative are prices for gas, electric power and labor resources. If to take prices in South Korea, Western Europe and Japan, it becomes apparent that they are very high there. Precisely because of this reason Russia is in such an advantageous position. That is why its companies are able to maintain their high profitability.
The head of Techint considered possible future risks for Russia’s steel industry. Expenses on transportation are quite high and this should be kept in mind when assessing the market here. Although the potential of its growth is sufficiently big, there is a need for a qualitative and flexible infrastructure. One more important aspect: there should be more active development of new fields and use of large volumes of domestic scrap. It would be expedient to use it taking into account competitive prices for electric power needed to utilize scrap.
One of possible ways for a successful development is a more active use of electric arc melting. The advantage of using the technology of electric arc furnaces (EAF) as compared with blast-furnaces is the need for considerably smaller investments. In Russia the share of steel produced under the EAF technology amounts to only 15%, while it equal 41% in Europe and 54% in the U.S. China is approximately at the same level as Russia but in the last year the growth there was more impressive, production methods used there were more diverse. One should also keep in mind that the situation with electric power in China is not that good.
After illustrating the potential of steel production based on electric arc melting with specific examples, Luigi Iperti referred to the experience of the company Techint, which makes 12.5 million tons of steel and does most of it with the use of EAF. On this basis the speaker recommended Russian steelmakers to pay more attention to this technology, which lets achieve a bigger production flexibility and provides good chances to move forward.


4.
Éîðã Äîåðëåð
Accenture,
Metals & Mining Industry Group,
U.S.

The representative of the company Accenture gave the discussion an unexpected turn. Instead of further contributing to the obviously dominating statements on the market’s positive prospects, high profits, favorable business conditions and growth of competitiveness, he said: "We know that nothing lasts forever". The common sense suggests that sooner or later the trend will change and a downfall will start. We would like to believe that there will be no crisis and that just a "cooling-off period of some kind" will take place. Nevertheless, companies should be ready for any changes in the future.
Here is one of the trends of the global consolidation. According to Accenture’s estimates, by 2010 five leading companies will account for 30% of all products as compared with 14% in 2000. Russian companies should, of course, participate in this global process. But they should decide for themselves whether they will mainly concentrate on the regional market or start changing themselves into global players.
As the global consolidation keeps growing stronger, it will begin to transform conditions of competition. Mergers, acquisitions will result in setting up such companies, which will be 2 or 3 times larger than today’s ones. They will be present all over the world and that will make the whole chain of supplies more complicated. There will be problems with managing employees, labor force as a whole. In order to control such complex enterprises, a totally different guiding level will be needed.
So, in the opinion of the speaker, not simply market fluctuations are ahead but, essentially, à new era of the global steel industry will be coming. Challenges of the past, including problems with raw materials are to be left behind. There is a need to settle the question of organizational structure. Steel companies should get transformed. The company Accenture believes that today the main factors of steelmakers’ success are: growth, profitability, reliable positioning in the future, process of company’s capitalization, consistency (predictable and reliable indexes) and, finally, steadiness within cycles of business activity.
How do present companies manage all this? Éîðã Äîåðëåð believes that so far no one of them succeeded in this respect. For example, many companies grew up considerably but not in terms of profitability.
The speaker tried to define business models for steel companies’ operations. Historically, most of them originated from small enterprises and mainly service their regions supplying undifferentiated products. In future this model will not survive. On the contrary, three other models have a progressive nature. The first one is a regional operator with an adequate scale of activity. Such a company can become a leader in a region. Next goes market specialization with an emphasis on a selected segment. And, finally, global companies operating all over the world.
Now every company should choose a right model and, with favorable economic conditions at hand, fight for a place under the sun in the future.

Reports at the summit were also made by:

Katinka Barysch
Chief Economist,
Center for European Reform,
UK

Richard Arthey
Mining and Metals Industry Manager,
Shell Global Solution,
UK

Joost Allebrandi
Principal Consultant,
Maintenance and Reliability,
Shell Global Solution,
UK

Oleg Kalinsky
Strategic Development Director,
Gazmetallproekt,
Russia

Vladimir Markin
Executive Director,
UMC-Steel,
Russia

Igor Konovalov
General Director,
INPROM,
Russia

Andrei Ioltukhovsky
Commercial Director,
i2 CIS Company,
Russia

John Edwards
Manager,
London Stock Exchange,
UK

Dmitry Peredvygin
Director,
CorpusGroup Regions LLC,
Russia

Glen Unsworth
Manager,
Moscow Narodny Bank,
UK

Elena Anankina
Director,
Standard & Poor’s,
Russia


Anton Sychev
Office of Design Financing,
Sberbank,
Russia