Mechel OAO (MTL), one of Russia’s leading mining and metallurgical companies, has reported results for its second quarter and first half of 2009.  For the first half of 2009, Mechel reported revenues of $2.4 billion, down 54% from the year-ago period. The company reported net losses of $471.4 million in contrast to net income of $41.1 billion year over year. However, Mechel managed a net income of $219.3 million in the reported quarter after posting losses in the last two quarters. Revenues inched up 8.6% sequentially to $1.3 billion on higher sales volumes. Before this, revenues were impacted by weak demand for steel and coking coal as well as foreign exchange losses.  The Steel segment generated 57% of revenues, which slipped 53.5% year over year to $1.40 billion in the first half of 2009. Unfavorable market conditions and low demand for steel from the end consumer ...

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has pledged not to fire workers from near-insolvent Avtovaz, but to create new subsidiaries employing up to 15,000 people.  Auto sales declined by 51% in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with the same period last year.  At the annual Foreign Investment Advisory Council, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has wooed foreign investors by concurring with their criticisms about 'excessive bureaucracy'.  The number of unemployed in Russia has begun to mount, having fallen successively for six months.  The Central Bank may buy gold from the state repository, says its First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev.  Evraz Group plans to sell as much as $1.04 billion of 10-year bonds, the company has announced.  Coking coal miner Mechel has seen a reversal of fortune, now back to a pre-crisis level of production ...

One of Russia’s leading mining and metal companies, Mechel OAO (MTL) is starting a new production line for cold-deformed reinforcement wire at its Beloretsk Metallurgical plant (BMP) subsidiary. Total investment in the project exceeded 55 million rubles ($1.79 million).

Mechel intends to increase the share of high-margin products manufactured under its Steel division. The company will process the cold-deformed reinforcement wire at its production unit in Moscow into quality wire rod highly demanded in construction. Mechel foresees an increase in demand for this new class of steel products. The company has already received an order for reinforcing wire of BMP production.  Due to low carbon content and mechanical strengthening, the cold-deformed reinforcement wire has several advantages compared to hot-rolled reinforcement wire such as improved welding characteristics, increased toughness and durability, and lack of scale. Additionally, cold-deformed reinforcement wire has higher design resistance to expansion and compression allowing reduction of

...

The commodity markets are surging today. Are the bulls charging because of investor fear or is something else going on? Here’s the answer.

There is a buzz in the commodities markets this week. Just about anything that can be pulled from the ground is surging in value. Everything, that is, but natural gas.

Most notably, gold is just about ready to reach over the critical $1,000 level, proving that investors are looking for safety. Even without a hint of inflation, the precious metal has surged by over 5% so far this week.

The quick run means the world’s gold miners are surging in value. The more leverage packed into their balance sheets, the higher their prices are going to go.

So far, Yumana Gold (NYSE:AUY) is up by nearly 20% this week, while AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) is up by over 15%.

It is a similar situation for the silver industry.

...

MDM bank and Ursa Bank have completed a merger which makes the new $16 billion enterprise Russia's second biggest non-state bank after Alfa.  The bank may sell a minority stake to investors and plans to increase its loans portfolio by 20-25%.  President Medvedev has reemphasized the importance of Russia diversifying its economy away from a dependence on raw materials.  Japan's Mitsui and Mechel are set to work on several joint steel projects together.  Saving Russia's fisheries industry, which catches in the Far East, but needs to sell in Russia's West, is a complicated affair, says the Moscow Times.  Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov says that car-maker Avtovaz needs further government assistance to prevent social unrest.  Car sales in Russia fell 58% in July in comparison with last year's figure.  Workers at RegionAvtoTrans-Kurgan have resumed ...

TIME magazine has published a very interesting profile of Alexander Lebedev and his quest to reform Russia.  Robert Amsterdam is quoted in the excerpt below.What is not simple is Russia. That quintessentially Russian query -- What is to be done? -- continues to bedevil the Kremlin. The country is, after all, falling apart. The price of oil is down sharply from its high of $147 a barrel in July 2008. The markets have been badly shaken by Putin's attack on steel giant Mechel, the breakup of the oil conglomerate TNK-BP (during which the Russians none-so-subtly squeezed out their British partners), and last summer's war with Georgia. And then, of course, there's the global financial crisis, which has hit Russia particularly hard. On top of all ...

A report has found that Russia's number of wealthy people fell by 28.5% last year, which is nearly twice as much as the average level across the globe.  The World Bank and the OECD have stated that Russia's economy would shrink by approximately 7.9% in 2009, rather than the 4.5% they had earlier predicted.  Apparently the delay in launching an anti-crisis plan exacerbated the downturn.  The New York Times reports upon how Russia has been one of the countries the hardest hit by the recession.  Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has reaffirmed that in the next ten years, there will not be 'considerable changes in the structure of reserve currencies in the world'.  With debts of $5.4 billion, 'there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern', says steel and coal producer ...

The IMF has predicted that Russia's economy will contract by up to 6% this year, but will grow by 0.5% in 2010.  Putin has drawn up new proposals for recapitalizing the banking sector and has said that a gradual slowing of inflation will allow the central bank to slash its refinancing rate.  The Prime Minister will also introduce measures to simplify taxes for small businesses and remove the requirement for them to have cash registers.  Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that the Reserve Fund will be 'practically exhausted' by 2010.  The Central Bank will increase bank lending by 10-12% this year.  Russia may cut its poultry quota by 2010 as domestic output increases.  Igor Zyuzin's steel and coal producer Mechel will buy up West Virginian assets from Bluestone Coal for $436 million in cash.  ...

Russia's government plans to lend the country's biggest banks 950 billion rubles ($36 billion) for at least five years in an attempt to unfreeze credit markets, according to a new plan announced by President Dmitry Medvedev this morning. State-run OAO Sberbank and VTB Group, will get 500 billion rubles and 200 billion rubles respectively.Some 450 billion roubles ($17.19 billion) of the 950 billion rouble subordinate loans package for banks will come from one of the National Wealth Funds according to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday. Russia's two oil wealth funds totalled $189.7 billion as of Oct. 1.The Russian authorities, who are currently grappling with the worst financial crisis since the government's debt default in 1998, have already pledged more than $150 billion for banks and companies through loans and tax benefits (see details in this post here). Stocks rose ...

Or perhaps I should say Igor Sechin has just added another job to his long list of government portfolios and extremely profitable business perks. Today it was announced that the silovik grand wizard has been nominated to the board of electricity trader Inter RAO - which fulfills his longtime dream of getting his foot in the door of Russia's electricity game. As many of you recall, Sechin was eagerly tossing monkey wrenches into the privatization process of UES, the country's public utility, overseen by Anatoly Chubais, who surprisingly was successful in fending him off (very, very few people in Russian business can say something like that). After Rosneft failed in its lawsuit to block the reorganization of TGK-11, Sechin appears to have intelligently waited until the privatization was complete in order to get into Inter. As his ...