July 24: Roman Golovchenko (Prime minister of the Republic of Belarus) visited OJSC "BSW - management company of "BMC" holding". He had a look at basic production, and met the company’s people.

Prime minister also held a meeting, with Minister of Industry in the Republic of Belarus, authorities of the region and district where performance of 6 months and further prospects of BSW were under consideration. It was stated that within Jan.-June 2020 BSW melted 1 mln. 250 thou. t. of steel. The company’s shops converted it into different steel products (rolled products, hot rolled pipes, steel cord and other types of wire) and sold to customers. More than 80% of products produced by BSW were exported. Geographic scope in the reporting period includes 49 countries. Russia, Israel, Lithuania, Germany and Netherlands are top countries consuming Byelorussian steel products.

As a major exporter, BSW felt how coronavirus affected global economy. Pandemic hit steel cord & wire production the most, i.e. sales of such costly product as steel cord. Due to quarantine many European customers either considerably decreased buying quantities or effective contracts were put on hold. Now the market is recovering. As a result, in July BSW expects to increase production of cord by more than 70% vs. previous month. Production is supposed to be above 5400 t. Big growth is expected for bead wire, steel wire. In general, summary for July the company expects to ramp up steel melting by 18% vs. previous month. Positive developments are expected for export and gained revenue.

To meet the company’s team was important and representatives from all company’s departments attended the meeting. According to Prime minister, talk with steel makers was dynamic and frank. Employees were concerned about a wide range of topics. Thus, parents of graduates were interested to know which professions would be called for in future. Young families clarified the possibility to get support for housing construction. Important issue was also electricity pricing, taking into account commissioning of Belarusian nuclear power plant.