Mariupol metallurgists feel the lack of orders

A sharp rise in demand characteristic of the previous two months of the current year, and, consequently, the prices in the metal market, as world analysts predicted, was replaced by a period of calm. The demand for the metal fell sharply, and the manufacturers, including Ukrainian metallurgists, immediately felt the lack of orders.

The fact that the price level does not correspond to the actual demand for metal products was repeatedly said by the Chairman of the Board, General Director of the Ilyich MMK, Vladimir Boyko. In his opinion, the pricing policy, which was observed over the past two months, was rather a reaction of manufacturers to a sharp rise in prices for raw materials, rather than increasing demand.

According to him, the current situation resembles October - November 2008: “Today we again transferred to the saving mode and correctly adjust the scheduled tasks taking into account the residues of the raw materials and the required amount of purchases. What is the reason for the fall of the market - no one knows, but it is possible that these are the consequences of a sharp jump in price, when the metal has generated by 15 to 20%, and the raw materials almost twice.”

According to Vladimir Semenovich, today the deficit of orders at the plant 120 - 140 thousand tons, the lack of working capital adds problems. An unresolved issue with the return of VAT was reflected in the calculations with suppliers. Over the past month, the plant practically did not pay for the gas consumed and owed for concentrate, ore and coke. “Everyone hopes that the situation will change soon, and for now we will work in the saving mode and with production lower than it was in March and April,” the general director summed up.

In order to prevent overproduction, metallurgical enterprises, including the Ilyich plant, are forced to reduce the volume of products in relation to March and April this year. The situation with the planned task is adjusted daily during production meetings. Production of both an infabric and the entire metallurgical redistribution is planned, given the presence of raw materials, ore, concentrate. As Vladimir Boyko noted, "today the plant does not have enough orders for 110 thousand tons in order to download at least at the level of the last month the-1700, and 40 thousand tons for the Stan-3000."