OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2010. Mechel OJSC (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and steel companies, reports that Sberbank has opened a credit line for Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (CMP), reported the press-centre of Mechel.

Sberbank has opened a credit line totaling 15 billion rubles for Mechel’s subsidiary CMP. The credit facilities provided will have a 5-year maturity and a 3-year grace period and will be used to refinance the short-term debt.

Stanislav Ploshchenko, Mechel’s Chief Financial Officer, commented on the event: “We achieved a significant improvement in the maturity profile of our debt in September 2010 when we had placed 10 billion rubles of 5-year bond in two tranches and refinanced 2 billion dollars of the syndicated credit facility with international banks. We are not stopping there. The support we receive from Sberbank – our longstanding partner – helps us in achieving that goal. With the new credit line we will optimize the structure of our debt portfolio further, which will help us to continue working on our main task – financing the growth of our business.”