MINSK, 5 May (BelTA) – Despite sanctions the Belarusian steel mill BMZ is operating steadily, BelTA learned from Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko.
Roman Golovchenko said: “The government continues planned work to review the operation of the largest enterprises affected by the sanctions. BMZ is operating steadily on the whole, including thanks to the substantial state aid the enterprise received last year. Output and export are at a sufficient level, the stock in storage is not high. The enterprise earns net profit.”
The prime minister remarked that the pressure of sanctions is rather serious. “Particularly due to the cessation of export to the European market, which offered high profit margins to the enterprise. Nevertheless, there is nothing extraordinary about it. The products are in demand. The key now is to effectively redirect export to alternative markets. Today we are going to review what the enterprise has done to accomplish that and what else needs to be done to compensate for the loss of sales in Europe,” he noted.
BMZ Director General Dmitry Korchik informed Roman Golovchenko about what the enterprise is doing today to redirect shipments to alternative markets. Dmitry Korchik said: “We started working very actively in March when the European Commission decided to restrict our shipments to the European market. So far a number of contracts have been prepared for the spot group of products – reinforcing bars, rolled metal, structural steel. We are arranging test shipments of product batches to the markets of the Russian Federation and other CIS states. We are also working very hard to promote our products to the markets of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. We intend to finish this work soon – in May-June. In order to operate at full output capacity with this group of products in the second half of the year.” At the same time BMZ is busy promoting other high-margin products – pipes and metal cord.
The press service of the government noted that the operation of another industrial giant – the tractor factory MTZ – was discussed as well.
