Russian steel companies Severstal and MMK have both reported high capacity utilisation rates at their tinplate operations in the USA and Russia respectively. In the case of Severstal’s business, tinplate is faring much better than other steel products in North America, while MMK has now ramped up from 50% capacity utilisation in November-December to 100% in March at Russia’s only domestic tinplate mill.
Commenting on Severstal’s fourth quarter results, CEO Alexei Mordashov noted that capacity utilisation at its plants around the world had improved markedly from the very low rates of 40 – 60% recorded at the end of last year. Its fourth-quarter crude steel production had dropped by 52% from the third quarter as a result of lower demand in the North American market. However in a statement the strong performance of tin mill products was pointed out: "Severstal Sparrows Point (Maryland) and Wheeling (West Virginia.) have maximized the utilization of their tin plate production in response to an increase in demand in 2009. In addition, we negotiated an increase in prices with North American automotive and tinplate customers for 2009."
Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) also reported as bounce back in production and sales of coated steel products after a very weak fourth quarter. In a press release it said that it plans to increase the utilisation rate of its hot-dip galvanising line from 75% currently to 92.6% of capacity this month. It also plans to ramp up production at its pre-painting and tinning lines from 68% and 65% respectively to 100% of capacity. In November and December last year, the galvanising and tinning lines were operating at half of their capacity and the pre-painting line at only 40%. MMK’s tinplate production in 2008 declined by 13% to 216,000 tonnes.
