OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2012. NLMK DanSteel A/S, a Danish rolling mill of NLMK Europe Plates, has started production at a new 4.2 m heavy plate stand adding new products to the company’s portfolio. The project worth of Euro100 million started in August 2012 as a part of the company’s strategy to leverage its strong position in the plate markets.

The new mill is designed for wider range of plates between 5-200 mm in thickness and widths of up to 4,000 mm. This expansion widens product portfolio making the company a “one stop shop” for the customers from a variety of sectors including from the new high growth markets like off-shore drilling platforms manufactures and off-shore wind sector. New products will help to strengthen presence both in Northern Europe as well as in the export markets winning competition from the traditional players.

Igor Sarkits, NLMK Europe Plate CEO says: “This milestone development supports our strategy to capture long-term growth in our key markets by expanding market share, introducing new products, more efficiently use channels and marketing as well as building our capabilities. Strengthening of existing positions together with other NLMK Group companies within Europe Plate division – NLMK Verona and NLMK Clabecq, which are also constantly expanding their range of products, will provide us with a strong position in our traditional industries - wind energy, shipbuilding, yellow goods and construction. Given the current economic situation in Europe, the new rolling mill at NLMK DanSteel A/S offers an opportunity of a substantial increase of our presence on the export markets including high growth ones”.

The requirements for the feedstock is fully met by the supplies from the Russian-based operations of the Group where recent expansion of the secondary treatment and casting facilities boosted steel quality adding new grades required for premium sophisticated steel solutions.

The business model of manufacturing low cost steel close to the captive raw material base and manufacturing of the finished products close to the end-users is unique for the global steel industry and it proved to be successful starting from the acquisition of DanSteel in 2006 and further reinforced in 2011 through the integration with the downstream rolling assets.

This integrated model lowers risks of volatile semi products markets and unstable third parties deliveries. Currently NLMK’s Russian operations supply slabs, a semi-finished product for flat steel manufacturing, to all its rolling subsidiaries in Europe that are further re-rolled into finished products close to the end customers in the machinery, automotive and energy sectors.