OREANDA-NEWS. On 09 June 2008 was announced, that before the end of 2008 the Russian-Turkish MMK-Atakas JV plans to start up a steel service centre.

Jointly with the Turkish company Atakas, OJSC MMK is carrying out a steel mill construction project in Turkey. The new mill will be located on two sites, with the core production facilities to be developed on the site in Iskenderun, and a second site in Istanbul. The project, whose ground-breaking ceremony in March of this year was attended by Victor Rashnikov, Chairman of MMK's Board of Directors, and Nazim Ekren, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Premier, will allow to produce around 2.3 million tons of various flat products from scrap and metalized materials. It is also planned to set up two service centres in Iskenderun and Istanbul. To supply the Iskenderun plant with raw materials and to ship finished products a sea port will be built on site capable of accommodating ships with tonnages up to 80,000. The contract for delivery of process equipment for the mill was signed last October with the Italian manufacturer Danieli.

As Boris Dubrovsky , OJSC MMK's Managing Director, said at the recent steel summit in Moscow, "the mill will be built in stages." Before the end of 2008 a service centre will be commissioned in Iskenderun which will have a cut-to-length and slitting lines for hot rolled, galvanized and colour-coated coils, and a packing line. In 2010 it is planned to commission a 450 ktpy hot dip galvanizing line and a 200 ktpy colour coating line and a cold rolling mill to feed the lines with input material. Ultimately the Iskenderun plant will also have electric arc furnaces and a hot rolling mill added upstream making it an independent production unit.

Another steel service centre is under construction in Istanbul which will also comprise a 450 ktpy galvanizing line and a 200 ktpy colour coating line and coil cutting and slitting facilities. In other words, by implementing its organic growth strategy, MMK is becoming an active player in the globalization process.