Belon will serve as a principal provider of coking coal for MMK (Magnitogorsk) which has become its major shareholder last October and is to provide MMK with up to 70 per cent of the raw material (instead of the current 35-40%).
For that purpose Belon is authorized to reinvest all its profit (3.8 bn roubles expected in 2010) as well as income from non-core assets sales (1.8 bn roubles).
Currently, Belon provides for 35 to 40 per cent of MMK demand, Vitaliy Bakhmetyev (Belon, freshly-appointed CEO) informs. Up to 5 years may be needed to reach the targeted level of 70 per cent as well as massive investments and purchase of additional coal reserves. This year Belon plans to increase its output of coking coal concentrate up to 5.11 m t (+62 per cent), total MMK demand amounting to 7 m t.