Magnitogorsk Works Goes to Work for Foreign Automakers
Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works has bought 37.5 percent of ZAO Interkos-IV, a press-form and semi-finished parts manufacturer in St. Petersburg, from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It plans to buy more shares from the company's management in the course of the coming week to raise its share to 75 percent. The value of the deal was not made public. Magnitogorsk may become the supplier of stamped metal to the group of automakers emerging in the northwest of Russia and may increase its output of automobile body sheet metal.
Interkos-IV was founded by four engineers, Boris Lazebnik, Timur Shoshtaev, Arkady Sverdlov and Pavel Olkhov – in 1991. It supplies both Russian and foreign carmakers, among them GAZ, VAZ, ZIL, MAZ, KamAZ, AZLK, UAZ, Ford Europe, Ford Russia, Volkswagen, Daewoo Motors, Hayes Lemmerz and Caterpillar. The annual proceeds of the company, in the words of its management, is “several million dollars.”
Sergey Fiveisky, chairman of the St. Petersburg committee on economic development, industrial policy and trade, told Kommersant that the acquisition of a controlling package in Interkos-IV is the first step by Magnitogorsk in the establishment of a metals service center in Northwestern Russia. General Motors, Toyota, Nissan and Suzuki have announced plans to build plants in that region. Analysts say that the Magnitogorsk may double its output of automobile body sheet metal to 1.6 million tons per year by 2012. Magnitogorsk would then have annual proceeds of $1.2-1.3 billion per year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 10, 2007
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