Russian demand for ferrous metals growing faster than for nonferrousmetals

MOSCOW. Oct 22 - Domestic demand for metal products continued to grow in the first nine months of 2007, with demand for ferrous metals increasing faster than for nonferrous metals. "In January-September we saw considerable growth in consumption of ferrous metals inside the country, which is due to the development of production in virtually all metal-consuming sectors of the economy - the fuel and energy sector, engineering, construction, transportation and others," said Alexei Pinchuk, the head of metallurgy policy at the Industry and Energy Ministry. Domestic consumption of finished ferrous rolled products grew 15% to 27.9 million tonnes in the period, with imports supplying 14.3% of the total, he said. Sales of steel pipes on the Russian market grew 23.5% to 6.9 million tonnes in the nine months, with the market share of imports growing 1.4 percentage points to 18.7% from 17.3%, Pinchuk said. "It should be said that the growth in sales of roll and pipes on the domestic market was achieved not only due to the favourable market situation, but also thanks to metallurgical companies' successful marketing and promotion of their products, and improvements in services in key sectors of the market," Pinchuk said. He said consumption of nonferrous metals on the domestic market is also increasing, including by 0.8% for nickel, 5.1% for aluminum and 2.3% for copper.