In 2019, MMK Group's shipments to the Russian market, including MMK-Lysva Metallurgical Plant, amounted to more than 8.3 mln tonnes of metal products, up 8 % compared to 2018. Denis Chernenko, Head of MMK's Marketing Department spoke about this at the 13th Russian Conference 'Regional Metal Trade of Russia' in Sochi.

Shipments of hot-rolled steel accounted for the greatest volume of MMK Group sales to the Russian market in 2019, equalling 48% of total sales. Long-products took 17% of the share. The remaining share was accounted for by cold-rolled steel (11%), galvanised steel (14%) and polymer-coated steel (5%). Within the industry, the key consumers of MMK's products in 2019 were the pipe industry (31% of total sales) and the metal trade and service centres (32%). In addition, machine-building plants accounted for 14% of shipments and the automotive industry and semi-integrated mills accounted for 7% each.
Speaking about MMK's strategy in the spot market, Denis Chernenko said that in 2019, out of the total volume of shipments to Russian traders and metal service centres (2.62 mln tonnes), 24% of shipments were to regional metal traders and steel service centres and 40% were to key metal trading companies. The remaining 36% was shipped to MMKs own retail network, MMK Trading House, whose development is a priority for the Company in terms of work in the Russian spot market.
MMK Trading House has a wide network of representatives in all the main metal consuming regions of Russia with 30 separate divisions and a further 5 divisions in Kazakhstan. MMK Trading House’s customer base includes around 3,000 active clients of which 68% were end users in 2019 (63% in 2018). The overall growth of sales of metal products through MMK Trading House since 2014 amounted to 31%.
One of the key directions of development of MMK Trading House is robotisation which is implemented in line with MMK's development strategy Industry 4.0. Artificial intelligence is already performing many functions at MMK Trading House: AI monitors current prices for metal products and purchased material and technical resources, it generates and sends operational "Accept-shipment" reports to departments every day, studies regional labour markets and performs the initial selection of candidates using the sites of recruiting companies, calculates employee salaries and generates a 3-month sales forecast.
The 13th Russian conference "Regional Metal Trade of Russia" was held in Sochi on February 20 and 21. The event is organised by Metal Supply and Sales Magazine with the support of the Metal-Expo exhibition and the Russian Union of Metal and Steel Suppliers. The conference was attended by over 100 managers and specialists of commercial services, supply and sales departments, marketing departments of metal trading and metallurgical companies and metal service centres. The theme of the conference was the current state, and the perspectives for development, of metal trade and distribution of metal products in Russia. Participants also learnt about the experience of leading companies from different Russian regions, evaluating tools to improve performance and exploring new niches for the sale of rolled ferrous metals, hardware and steel pipes.