Byelorussian Steel Works (BSW) is increasing the production capabilities in August to make additional steel wire within its fabricated metal products sector.
By the end of the month, the steel producer intends to produce and distribute around 30,000mt of steel wire and cord products to consumers, it announced in a media statement on Wednesday. The anticipated volumes represent an increase of about one-third compared to its output in May when the steel industry faced sudden declines in demand as markets were globally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
BSW’s steel wire manufacturing sections were affected the worst by the pandemic and its corollaries to the economy, especially with regards to production levels of its metal cord and bead wire. Customer demand for the products particularly dropped when large manufacturing companies in Europe curtailed operations.
However, the utilization of production capacities has been progressively growing despite the downturn, more recently, for BSW’s steel wire manufacturing facilities. Lowered benchmarks weakened steel cord production at BSW’s works by the end of May, however by June and July output bounced back by 117pc with a year-to-date increase of 150pc projected by August-end, compared to May volumes.
In August, the steel manufacturer received orders totaling around 1,000mt of metal cord and bead wire from customers in Serbia, Germany, Russia, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. BSW employees are presently filling the added orders.
In January-July 2020, BSW exported approximately 1.2mn mt of steel products to 50 locations across the globe, noting its top consumers were Russia, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, and Poland.