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GOMEL (BelTA) – The Belarusian steel mill BMZ is busy mastering the production of new type of reinforcement bars, the company’s Press Secretary Alexander Olesik told BelTA.

The company has made a pilot batch of the new kind of merchandise – rebars with the diameter of 8mm. BMZ made only rebars with the diameter of 10-40mm in the past.

The company decided to start making the new product in response to customer’s demands. This year alone the company has received about 40 requests for this kind of rebars from potential buyers from the European Union, Africa, the Middle East, and other areas.

After evaluating the demand, BMZ specialists started working towards making 8mm rebars. The manufacturing department started working on it at the beginning of summer. The first pilot batch of 8mm rebars was made in early September. BMZ intends to make about 300 tonnes of this kind of merchandise before the end of September. Certification will start after that.

A flexible manufacturing policy and the constantly growing choice of merchandise allow BMZ to increase export. According to the latest data, in January-August BMZ exported 1.31 million tonnes of metal products worth $830 million. The export growth rate reached 136% as against the same period of last year in money terms and 109% in physical terms. Sales profitability reached 9.7%.

This year BMZ products have been shipped to more than 60 countries, ten of which BMZ had to reopen to trade. In July alone the company started trading with Portugal, Cameroon, Algeria, and Chad.

In January-August 2018 BMZ made a total of 1.59 million tonnes of steel, 1.38 million tonnes of rolled steel, 100,000 tonnes of seamless pipes, and 275,000 tonnes of metal cord, wire for high-pressure hoses, and other kinds of wire.