Mitsui Corp Joins in Russian Coil Center for Building Materials

Mitsui Corporation, Japanese major general trading house, announced on Friday the firm agreed with Steel Industrial Company (SIC), Russian largest independent steel dealer, in establishment of a joint steel processing center for building materials and completed fund investment. Mitsui Corp aggressively follows demand growth for processed steel sheet in Russia by establishment of two strategic joint coil centers in a row, one of which is a coil center for automotive steel sheet that Mitsui Corp decided the establishment last month.

SIC is headed in Yekaterinburg, Ural Union, operating approximately 40 sales bases and 5 steel processing centers with approximately 2,000 employees in Russia and CIS. The steel sales total around 1 million tonnes per year. The current revenue is 23 billion rubles (54.2 billion yen). The total asset is 9.789 rubles.

Mitsui Corp acquired 49% shares in Stami, SIC’s subsidiary, at 196 million rubles (460 million yen). Stami has 2 slitters, 2 levelers and 2 roll forming machines and processes slit coil, cut sheet and light-weight shape steel such as channel and angle.

In Russia, constructions of infrastructures, cities and houses are expected to progress steadily along the country’s economic growth. Specific demand is also expected to emerge toward Winter Olympic in Sochi in 2014 and FIFA World Cup in 2018 held in Russia. Stami provides steel processing service mainly in Ural region.