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Gold/Mining/Energy : Steppe Gold (SPE:V) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Dydo who wrote (716)	3/7/1998 3:59:00 PM
From: John Menzies	Respond to of 1248

ISPAT STEEL WORKS _A SUCCESS STORY Interesting article- just going about their business in avery professional manner -and performing.This steel works is located to the west of Mizek. We plan to transport materials through here by rail on the way to Mizek. Kazakh Ispat Karmet '97 hot coil output up 47 pct 11:12 p.m. Mar 06, 1998 Eastern TEMIRTAU, Kazakhstan, March 6 (Reuters) - Ispat Karmet, the Kazakhstan steelworks owned by the Indian expatriate LNM Group, produced 3.17 million tonnes of hot-rolled coil in 1997, 47 percent up on the previous year, company data showed. Sales of all products rose 31 percent to 2.93 million tonnes from 2.24 million, while hot-rolled coil sales rose 65 percent to 1.63 million tonnes from 0.99 million, according to figures made available to Reuters on Friday. Financial results were not available. Ingot output at the vast plant, bought from the Kazakh government by London-based Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal in November 1995, rose to 3.83 million tonnes from 3.11 million in 1996, an increase of 23 percent. The capacity of the site, once one of the Soviet Union's biggest steelworks and still the biggest private employer in Kazakhstan, is some six million tonnes. General director Malay Mukherjee estimated on Friday that Ispat Karmet, employing some 30,000 people at the Temirtau steel works and 37,000 at the nearby Karaganda coal mines, accounted for some seven percent of Kazakhstan's gross domestic product. Mukherjee said output was up partly due to $150 million of investments in repairs and new plant. It plans total investments of $830 million by 2001, to raise sales to 3.22 million tonnes this year and 3.90 million in 2000. Of the investment programme, $450 million will be funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. Mukherjee said a major part of the new management's strategy was the development of new markets, away from Karmet's traditional customers in the former Soviet Union. ''The change in the market has been dramatic,'' he said in an interview. ''The CIS has gone from about 80 percent (of sales) in 1994 to just 12 percent last year.'' China has become the biggest single market for the plant, with steel being rail-freighted across the Kazakh-Chinese border. Southeast Asia, Turkey, Egypt and other parts of the Middle East are also important markets. Last year also saw completion of a switch to 100-percent cash sales, compared to the barter agreements which accounted for all sales in 1994, Mukherjee said. The company has widened its product line to meet the varying specifications of international clients. The privately-owned LNM Group, which ranks itself as the world's 10th biggest steelmaker, also includes Ispat International NV, which is quoted in New York and Amsterdam. Figures for Ispat Karmet in Kazakhstan: 1997 1996 1995 Output (mln T) Ingots 3.83 3.11 2.96 Hot rolled coil 3.17 2.16 2.27 Cold rolled coil 0.93 0.72 0.62 Tin 0.34 0.32 0.44 Sales (mln T) Hot rolled coil 1.63 0.99 Cold rolled coil 0.91 0.71 Tin 0.13 0.13 Black tin 0.10 0.10 Corrugated iron 0.09 0.09 Target sales (mln T) 1998 1999 2000 Hot rolled coil 1.35 1.55 1.75 Cold rolled coil 1.20 1.10 1.05 Tin 0.27 0.33 0.35 Black tin 0.20 0.20 0.20 Corrugated iron 0.20 0.25 0.25 Galvanised products 0.0 0.25 0.30 Sales by region (pct) 1998+ 1997 1996 Former Soviet Union 23 12 14 China 34 33 45 Southeast Asia 12 22 25 West and Central Asia 14 23 14 Americas 6 3 2 Other 11 7 1 + Forecast moscow.newsroom+reuters.com)) Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.