CHELYABINSK, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Chelyabinsk Region's trade with countries outside the CIS went up 30%, to $2.7 billion, in January through June 2007, the region's economic development minister, Yury Klyopov, told RIA Novosti.
According to the minister, ferrous and non-ferrous metals account for the bulk of the region's exports.
The Chelyabinsk Region also exports mechanical engineering products and petrochemicals.
Local metallurgical companies are the largest exporters, including the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), the Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works, the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Combine, the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant, Ufaleynickel, MMK-Metiz and the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant.
In the first six months of 2007, the region mainly exported its goods to Kazakhstan, Iran, the Netherlands, Turkey, Italy, Ukraine, and India, Klyopov added. It imported commodities from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, China, Italy and the United States.
The Chelyabinsk Region is located 2,300 kilometers southeast of Moscow, on the boundary between Europe and Asia. It ranks 10th among the regions of the Russian Federation in terms of industrial output. The metallurgy sector is the leader of the local economy. Local ferrous metals plants account for 27% of all rolled iron and steel produced in Russia, and 13.5% of steel pipes.
