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Mechel

Mechel (Russian: ПАО «Мечел») is one of Russia's mining and metals companies, comprising producers of coal, iron ore in concentrate, steel, rolled steel products. Headquartered in Moscow, it sells its products in Russia and overseas, and is formally known as Public Joint Stock Company Mechel.

Under the leadership of Vladimir Iorikh (Russian: Владимир Филиппович Йорих), Southern Kuzbass Coal Company acquired control over Chelyabinsk Steel Plant in the summer of 2002 and subsequently announced a merger of Southern Kuzbass and Mechel into Mechel Steel Group. Igor Zyuzin was elected as Chairman of the Board of Mechel Steel Group OAO in January 2004.

Mechel acquired Posyet Sea Commercial Port on the Russian coast of the Sea of Japan in 2004. Mechel submitted a winning bid for a 26.9% stake in Izhstal in May 2004, subsequently increasing its stake to control. Mechel won an auction in January 2005 to buy a blocking stake (25% plus one share of stock) in Yakutugol. Also in 2005, Mechel acquired a controlling stake in Kambarka River Port. In October 2006, Mechel bought control in Moscow Coke and Gas Plant.

Mechel acquired a controlling stake in Southern Kuzbass GRES OAO and Kuzbassenergosbyt power sales company in 2007. Also in 2007, Mechel added to its asset portfolio the Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant, the largest producer of high-silicon content ferrosilicon in Eastern Siberia, producing 84,000 metric tons of this material per annum, or approximately 14% of the total Russian ferrosilicon output.

Mechel acquired Oriel Resources Ltd in April 2008, which controls the Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant (in Leningrad Region), the Shevchenko Nickel Deposit (in Kazakhstan) and the Voskhod Chromite Deposit (in Kazakhstan). The Tikhvin Plant has an annual projected capacity of 140,000 metric tons of ferroalloys. Mechel launched a new refinery, Mechel Chrome, at the Voskhod Deposit in September 2008, with annual capacity of approximately 900,000 metric tons of chromite concentrate per annum. Mechel signed a deal to sell the Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant and the Voskhod Refinery to Turkey's Yildirim Group in 2013. The US$425-million deal was closed in December 2013.

Mechel negotiated the acquisition of 100% in US Bluestone Coal in 2008, for an estimated US$4 billion (approximately). However, the price was revised downward in early 2009 because of the Great Recession: Mechel was to pay for the asset US$425 million and issue 15% of the post-acquisition equity in preferred stock to the current shareholders of Bluestone Coal. After receiving $436 million in cash from Mechel and 83.3 million preferred shares of Mechel stock in 2009, Jim Justice purchased Bluestone Coal from Mechel OAO for only $5 million in cash in February 2015 with Mechel receiving future royalty payments of $3 per ton from Bluestone Coal mines and 12.5% from the sale of Bluestone Coal company if Justice sells the Bluestone Coal company during the next 5 years and 10% from the sale of the Bluestone Coal company during the next 5 to 10 years.

Mechel Trans, a Mechel logistics and transportation subsidiary, acquired a controlling stake (55%) in the Vanino Sea Commercial Port for RUB 15.5 billion from the government at an auction in early December 2012. Only one month later, Mechel re-sold most of its recently acquired stake to a consortium of Russian and international investors. The company later acquired 21.64% of the Port's common stock from En+ for RUB4.57 billion. Mechel sold 21.64% of common stock in Vanino Port for RUB 5 billion on October 23, 2013, retaining only 1.4% in the Port In October 2019, Mechel agreed to buy Gazprombank’s 34% stake in the Elga coal deposit for around 30 billion roubles ($461 million). In 2021, the company's revenue amounted to 28 billion rubles.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sharply criticized Mechel management at a government meeting in Nizhniy Novgorod on July 24, 2008, which focused on ongoing troubles in the steel industry. Putin accused Mechel for exporting raw materials for steelmakers at prices about half the domestic level (which could be a sign of tax avoidance). After Putin's accusations, Mechel's stock dropped 37.6% on the New York Stock Exchange, while the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service launched investigation into Mechel's practice of raising domestic coking coal prices far above the export price levels.

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