NLMK Group, an international steel producer operating assets in Russia, the USA and EU has held the first coordination board meeting with TMK. The meeting was held at the Taganrog Metallurgical Works (TAGMET), part of TMK.

In 2015, the partnership between NLMK Group and TMK moved to a new level, when the companies came to an agreement on promoting cooperation and using joint effort in solving technical challenges. NLMK’s shipments of coils to TMK have increased. In 2014, NLMK’s share in TMK’s total metal purchase volume totalled 9%; today it is well over 20%. TMK has rated the quality of NLMK Group’s products as high and now buys NLMK’s products for its other plants in addition to TAGMET.

The coordination board meeting was attended by commercial, production and engineering experts from NLMK and TMK. The partners discussed delivery terms, issues related to increase of product volume, expansion of product mix as well as product requirements indicated by customers from CIS and beyond.K

Ilya Guschin, NLMK Group Vice President Sales, said: "The OCTG segment is a strategic market for NLMK in Russia. In the last two years, NLMK has increased sales to this segment almost two-fold up to 14%, and we are strengthening our presence in this market. We are pleased to see that TMK has become our reliable partner, and will strive to enhance the established win-win partnership."

Sergey Marchenko, TMK’s Deputy CEO Procurement said: "TMK meets with its partners in this format on a regular basis. However, this is the first coordination board meeting with NLMK over the recent period. Our cooperation with NLMK is expanding; we are increasing the volume of delivery and expanding the product mix. Today, TAGMET has shown unprecedented results, processing all required types of coils. Mainly, this applies to furnace butt-welding. At the moment, we are considering an increase in purchasing across the entire product range."