Russian Fastener Prices Rise 15%-40%

Several major Russian fastener traders announced price increases of between 15 and 40% starting from July 2008, Fastener, Adhesives , Tools and… magazine reports.
The reseller prices have been driven by increases applied by Russian fastener manufacturers, which have in turn explained the necessity of their actions based on worldwide raw material cost increases, which account for a considerable share of production cost.”
Severstal-Metiz increased bolt prices between 12 and 17% and nuts by 15%. MMK-Metiz increased bolts and nuts by 7%.
Rosmetiz, the hardware manufacturers association, announced on its website at the beginning of August that major Russian hardware producers MMK-Metiz and Severstal-Metiz had both raised prices as a result of the general trend of rising costs in metallurgy.
The Rechitskiy Metizniy plant will replace wooden boxes for packing fasteners with corrugated cardboard boxes filled on automated lines. New package samples were tested in May and the new method will be applied for 500 tons of fasteners by the end of 2008, and increased four-fold in 2009. Rechitskiy Metizniy also is modernizing its fastener workshop and constructing a second line for production of self-tapping screws with automatic packing machines … GAZ Group is updating fasteners used in its GAZel and Valday models. Specialists of the Joint Engineering Center and assembly technologists will use modern fixings used in the global automotive market. These replacements will help to eliminate the use of spring washers, flat washers and other subsidiary fasteners in threaded joints. This change will help to reduce the fastener range, bring down production costs, improve joint safety and enhance assembly quality and efficiency … 3M Russia announced a strategy to tripling sales through 2012. Growth has run at 35% annually for the last three years. 3M will use local production and expand into more regions The company’s first priority is industrial markets, which account for 50% of 3M sales. Products include adhesives, abrasive materials, personal protective gear, filters, polymer additions … Severstal-Metiz has acquired Italian specialty wire producer Redaelli Tecna SPA. Severstal-Metiz gains opportunities for worldwide distribution … OAO Severstal acquired Warren, OH-based WCI Steel for US$140 million. WCI Steel will be known as Severstal Warren Inc. … Kaliningrad-based Baltic Metallurgic Company based is expanding its production range to include anchor bolts. Baltic bought a German thread cutting machine … MMK-Metiz EMS has been recommended for environmental certification to ISO 14001:2004 & Magnitogorsh Iron & Steel Works reported first half 2008 revenues up 41% to US$5.65 billion. Web: fastinfo.ru �2008 FastenerNews.com