At present JSC "Severstal" satisfies half of BelAZ requirement in rolled products (annual deliveries are around 20 thousand tons per year). Collaboration of the two enterprises and R&D Institute of Ferrous Metals is presently in progress on development of new properties of heavy plate for BelAZ needs that will be similar to the Swedish brands Weldox and Hardox.

The visit to ??Z has taken place within the framework of the third Coordination Board, which is held on a regular basis with the key clients of JSC "Severstal". The agenda included the issues devoted to cooperation of the enterprises regarding new products and service improvement.

At MAZ, in particular, the trial lots of cold rolled and hot rolled IF-steel are now being tested. Furthermore, ??Z and "Severstal" begin to employ new interaction schemes. Henceforth the automotive producers will provide the list of requirements that the steel must meet and not the inquiries for particular steel grades. This concerns, in particular, high-strength steel grades. Then metallurgists will develop technology and produce metal with "specified properties". According to Sales Director of "Severstal" Mr. D.Yu.Goroshkov, "this is undoubtedly a step forward in the development of collaboration technology for two enterprises.

In the nearest future ??Z will begin approbation of the galvanized rolled product of the grade "Extragal" of Arselor manufacture for the purpose of transition to the product to be launched on "Severstal" site in Russia by the Joint Venture "Severgal" in the 1-st quarter of 2005.

From the point of view of service, the two enterprises are working together to expedite documents' circulation. Transition to electronic processing of orders is planned in this area. Besides, ??Z expressed its interest in BSC system (balanced scorecard system), which was introduced at "Severstal".

Presently the total deliveries to ??Z are 2.5 thousand tons of rolled products per month. But MAZ expressed intentions to increase the volume of purchases from "Severstal" in line with their plans to increase production of automobiles.