Today Van Leer Vologda, the Russian branch of an international producer of packaging, presents a new line with a capacity of 1 million metal barrels a year. Launching the new line will make Van Leer the largest producer of metal packaging in Russia.
   Van Leer had been working with Severstal for over four years. Since 1997 the company established branches in Vologda and Beloyarsk (Ural, Sverdlovsk region), which provide a 20% share of the Russian metal packaging market. Van Leer packaging is largely made out of Cherepovets metal.
   Besides launching a new line in Vologda in 2002 -2003 Van Leer plans to open new branches in Omsk and Volgograd. In November 2001,Van Leer and Severstal reached an agreement for purchasing of increased volumes of metal by Van Leer to cover the needs of a new line.
   The Coordinating Council in April noted that that the November agreements were seen to life -- Severstal improved quality of rolled metal and increased sales to Van Leer by 28 % in the first quarter of 2002 as compared with the corresponding period of 2001.
   At the second Coordinating Council's meeting, parties reassured each other in having a mutual interest in broadening the scope of cooperation to include foreign branches of Van Leer. The packaging company is interested in buying test batches of rolled steel for its branches in Morocco, Check Republic, Greece and Ukrain.