Russia's Metal Exports May Drop In 2001

The volume of metal exports will reduce by 1.5m tons in 2001, President of the Union of Metal Exporters Serafim Afonin declared at a conference 'Russian Metal Market' today. According to him, the reason for this is an increase in metal consumption on the domestic market. Thus, it went up 12% in 2001. In 2002, the volume of metal exports is expected to drop as well. However, Afinin refused to specify the details.