By John Helmer, Moscow Why would Roman Abramovich and his pals decide to buy a small steelmaker in South Africa at a price that would add to their debt by the very same amount they offloaded last year on to share buyers, so as to keep their debt-to-earnings ratio down, and their bankers sweet? That’s […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Commanders of empires like the French, British, American and Russian suffer from an identical blind spot. They all believe their power (arms, cash) is or should be great enough to destroy their adversaries decisively, totally, so that they can’t get up to fight again. The Americans lost the Vietnam war, as […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Mechel, the steelmaker and coalminer owned by Igor Zyuzin, is the dominant producer in Russia of the type of alloyed steel known in the English-speaking world as stainless. In French, it is known as inox (inoxydable). Neither term is quite accurate, but what is meant is everywhere clear. Because the steel […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 6th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the final quarter of 2011, Severstal, owned by Alexei Mordashov, lost its footing from the previous quarter as Russia’s leading steelmaker, falling behind Evraz, owned by Roman Abramovich, and Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine (Vladimir Lisin) in total production of crude steel. The chart, issued this morning by Alfa Bank steel analyst […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the Russian system, oligarchs can pretend to be patriots, but noone believes it. Nor does anyone, least of all outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev, believe them to be committed to competitive business. But if you sit in the Kremlin, trying to run the power vertical over the wall to the rest […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 30th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russian steel companies have been ordered by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to clean up their emissions, and pay for it out of their owners’ profit stream and dividends. If they agree, he is promising to provide tax and other offsets for their balance-sheets. Is he kidding? According to the press […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russia’s competition watchdog believes that a merger between two of the country’s top steelmakers, Evraz and Severstal, is a “pipe dream”, and will veto it if it is attempted. The swift, explicit reaction from one of the Russian government’s top market regulators indicates there has been no preliminary signal from the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Early this morning, November 25, Flinders Mines announced that Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), owned by Victor Rashnikov, has signed a full takeover offer, proposing to buy all 1.8 billion Flinders Mines shares (including options) on issue at 30 Australian cents. This values the company at A$546.3 million (US$530 million) — a […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 25th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The junior Australian iron-ore miner, Flinders Mines, announced a halt to trading in its shares today amid market speculation that Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), the Russian steelmaker owned by Victor Rashnikov (image, right), is preparing a bid to buy part or all of the Flinders Mines shares, adding up to a […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Ekaterina Videman is the spokesman for Mechel and Mechel Mining, wealth accumulation vehicles controlled by Igor Zyuzin (left). What she and the company announce publicly is what they want public shareholders to think, and they do not respond readily to questions. This is allowable under the New York Stock Exchange rules […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
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