Mittal Steel Kriviy Rih boosts sales 16% in 2006

Mittal Steel Kryviy Rih (formerly Kryvorizhstal), Ukraine's biggest steel mill, boosted sales 15.9 percent in 2006 to 7.089 million tonnes of steel products. Sales on the Ukrainian market rose two percent to 1.415 million tonnes, Volodomyr Shalymov, the company's sales manager, said at a conference on metals and the construction industry in Kiev. Domestic shipments fell in January and February last year due to the severe cold weather at the time, but the situation picked up in the second half of 2006 and sales hit a record 159,000 tonnes in October, Shalymov said. The company has devised a special system to increase domestic market sales, split Ukraine into six zones: Kiev/Vinnitsa, South, North, East, west and Dnipropetrovsk. Shalymov said the biggest wirebar consumers included Dniprometiz, Zavod Metiz, Metizy Trading House and Vistek.