Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – This year, Uzmetkombinat intends to bring finished goods exports up to 350,000 tonnes, and these plans have a very real basis. Demand for the company's products is growing, especially in the CIS countries. This is due to the new strategy for promoting foreign markets, marketing research, as well as constantly improving transportation conditions and supply chains, the press service of the company said.

At the recent Metal-Expo international fair in Moscow, the plant representatives held talks with a number of Russian and Ukrainian companies. It should be noted that this was the first experience for the plant in participating in one of the leading Russian specialized exhibition events.

Following the talks, the Russian companies Gallaktika and Meter expressed their readiness to purchase Uzmetkombinat products from non-ferrous metals and silica fume, while the Ukrainian company Sodruzhestvo showed interest in purchasing steel grinding balls and fittings of various profiles.

"Presumably, the first deliveries of products to these enterprises can be carried out before mid-2020. And this is only the beginning. Following the results of participation in the exhibition, we had many useful meetings and negotiations, which we will now try to convert into new contracts," said the head of the production department of Uzmetkombinat Rahmat Inamov.

Today Uzmetkombinat is a leading ferrous metallurgy enterprise in the region, therefore its products are exported to all neighboring countries. Thus, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan purchase metal products, Kyrgyzstan and Russia - copper alloys, Tajikistan - enameled containers, metal products, heat-insulating materials, and Turkmenistan - construction materials. Currently, work is underway to establish export of copper and alloys to Azerbaijan.

In 2017, the head of state approved measures to radically improve the production capacities and financial and economic condition of the plant. As a result, he was transferred to the trust management of the foreign company SFI Management Group, which achieved significant results in a short time.

So, for example, a year later, a new ferroalloy workshop was launched at the plant. A special solemnity to this event was given by the fact that the president of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev commissioned a new production. The project cost was $ 60 million, of which $ 17 million was raised from Korean Eximbank.

“In total, in September 2018, the plant produced 18 thousand tonnes of this product, 290 people work in our workshop. First of all, we aim to solve the problem of import substitution in the republic, but at the same time we are ready to increase export. Two more furnaces will be built in the future, it is expected that the production volume will additionally increase by 30 thousand tonnes per year and in general will exceed 55 thousand tonnes of ferroalloys," Dilshod Dusmatov, head of the Uzmetkombinat ferroalloys workshop, said.

Over the past two years, the economic situation of the enterprise has stabilized, the process of implementing new investment projects has begun. One of the most important is the construction of a new casting and rolling complex.

The casting and rolling complex, which is being built by the Italian company Danieli, will be commissioned in 2022. With its launch, conditions will be created for the production of one million tonnes of sheet products, and the employment of more than 1000 people.

After the implementation of the project, the plant plans to increase the volume of finished products to 2.1 million tonnes per year. At the same time, for comparison, in 2018 the plant produced about 1 million tonnes of finished products.