Agreement Signed between Russian Metallurgists and US Ministry of Trade - 24 September, 2002

The directors of three leading Russian metallurgical enterprises - Severstal, Novolipetsky Metallurgical Factory and Magnitorsk Metallurgical Factory have signed an agreement on the self-regulation of the supply of hard-rolled metal on the American market with the US Ministry of Trade in Washington. According to the press department of Severstal the agreement establishes a minimum price on the export of Russian metal-roll to the USA.

According to Dmitrii Goroshkov, Marketing Director for Severstal, the self-regulation agreement is the first document to be signed since the USA's recognition of the market status of the Russian economy. He believes that this has set a precedent not only for metallurgy but for the whole Russian economy. In his opinion, this agreement will allow Russian metallurgy to retain its share of the American market. "The only disadvantage is the fact that the supply of metal-roll will only begin again in the second quarter of 2003", said Dmitrii Goroshkov.