Victor Rashnikov, MMK Chairman of the Board, and Sergei Kogogin, General Director of KAMAZ, signed a Memorandum today providing for construction of metal service center in Naberezhniye Chelny (Tatarstan). According to the Memorandum, the new facility to be commissioned in 2012 will be owned by MMK and KAMAZ on a parity (50-50) basis. Overall investments into the project will exceed 1 bn rubles. When commissioned, the center’s processing capacity will reach 170,000 mtpy of hot-rolled steel.

Speaking on the project’s perspectives, Rashnikov stated that “production of auto sheets meeting international quality standards is one of the strategic goals pursued by MMK. The new production facility will supply KAMAZ with the necessary assortment of high-quality rolled stock.” According to Rashnikov, KAMAZ will be a major but not the sole customer of the metal service center as in addition to KAMAZ and its affiliates the center is planning to ship its products to other car makers, construction sector players, bridge-engineering and machine-building companies.

Sergei Kogogin, General Director of KAMAZ, said: “We consider today’s signing with MMK as a significant step towards stabilization of the Russian metals market as a whole and the automotive steel market in particular. KAMAZ has been always speaking in favor of cooperation with steelmakers based on a stable, transparent, long-term and mutually advantageous terms. We are happy that our ideas have started to materialize. We salute our Magnitogorsk partners whose up-to-date projects have been unfolding at MMK and in other regions of Russia. Their efforts are aimed at manufacturing high-quality products meeting international standards and designed for domestic carmakers. We hope that other iron-and-steel industry players in this country will also contribute to increased stability in the automotive metals market.”