OREANDA-NEWS. ZAO Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk, a joint venture between the Russian Steel division of PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading steel and steel-related mining companies, and Mitsui, one of Japan’s the major financial and industrial group, was presented to customers.

This is the first steel service center construction project in Russia with investment from a Japanese commercial company holding shares in the project.

The joint venture was established on April 9, 2010 to develop further Severstal’s automotive steel sheet to stamped auto part production chain. The combined strengths of the two companies will support their success in the market. Mitsui, with its experience in service center management, and Severstal, with its technical capabilities and experience in supplying rolled steel supply to automaking clients.

Dmitry Goroshkov, Head of sales and marketing, Severstal Russian Steel division, said: “Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk will further facilitate operations for international automakers in Russia. A very broad range of rolled product processing services is now available to Severstal’s customers, with Cherepovets Steel Mill’s high technical competences in automotive steel production, the convenient location of the SMC for major production sites and assembly sites in the North-West region, and also Severstal’s auto part stamping services.”

“Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk provides a full range of services for steel sheet slitting and cutting-to-length, blanking for subsequent stamping, and manufacturing welded blanks.

The service center is equipped with a line producing welded blanks for the automotive industry, the first line of its type in Russia and other CIS countries. With the launch of this line the company became the first Russian steelmaker to enter the market for Ultralight Steel Auto Bodies, which are in high demand among those automakers with assembly lines in Russia. The facility has the capacity to weld 0.5 - 3 mm thick blanks.

 Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk has been supplying welded blanks to international automakers with their production lines located in Russia, including St. Petersburg. The car parts are stamped at Gestamp Severstal Vsevolozhsk, a joint venture of Severstal and Gestamp, a Spanish company.

Welded blanks are supplied to the Nissan production site in St. Petersburg where they are used to manufacture car parts such as doors and floors.

Additionally, Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk will service automakers with assembly lines in Russia in a number of other ways. The center’s facilities include a notching line designed to process a wide range of steels including high strength grades. The line’s press (800 tonnes) has been built to manufacture a range of blanks– from simple to shaped. The blanking press is capable of cutting blanks from rolled sheet with a thickness of between 0.5 and 3.2 mm.

The mini cut-to-length line produces sheets from cold rolled, hot rolled pickled, galvanized strips between 0.4 and 2.3 mm in thickness. The slitting line is designed for slitting cold-rolled, hot-rolled pickled and galvanized steel strips from 0.3 to 4.5 mm in thickness and up to 1,850 mm in width.

Today Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk produces around 5,000 tonnes per month. Once the facilities reach their design capacity the center will be producing around 150,000 tonnes per year. The majority (up to 60%) of the products manufactured by SMC will be supplied to automakers. The rest will be supplied to construction and engineering companies including manufacturers of household appliances.

A branch of AO Severstal Distribution (part of Severstal Russian Steel’s distribution network) has been established on site to promote Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk products, enabling the company to benefit from the distribution network to increase shipments to customers.

Cherepovets Steel Mill is the major supplier of rolled steel to Severstal-SMC-Vsevolozhsk – it supplies more than 90% of the service center demand.

Total investment in the project amounts to over 1.7 bln roubles.