By John Helmer, Moscow The disclosure that Alisher Usmanov has recently made a secret agreement with Oleg Deripaska to achieve improved corporate governance at Norilsk Nickel is more revealing than Usmanov intends to let out – but that additional revelation isn’t difficult to guess.

by John Helmer - Monday, March 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow This is the tale of how one Russian’s ambition to be the biggest of his kind in the world, and create a safe haven for his wealth in another country, ended up costing public shareholders billions of dollars in equity and dividend losses; enriched a syndicate of international banks; and lost […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Man has been eating his best friend for at least 9,400 years – and that’s just in the US. In Russia, he’s been doing it for even longer. He’s still doing it.

by John Helmer - Friday, February 25th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Russian government’s price watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), confirmed today that a new complaint charging unlawful price-fixing for steel sheet has been received. The complaint has been filed, according to FAS spokesman Victoria Livanova, by Chelyabinsk Pipe (Chelpipe, ChTPZ) against Severstal and Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Company (MMK). Industry sources claim […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow China’s appetite for iron-ore to make steel is one of the engines driving the entire industrial world. No mystery there, and no news.

by John Helmer - Sunday, February 13th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Many Hindu gods are depicted with multiple arms. This is a pictorial way of illustrating for believers the many qualities which the god is believed to exercise. By assigning many arms, the illustrator was able to demonstrate the many things the deity can pull off at the same time.

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 9th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow When there was a Russian steel consumption boom three years ago, the domestic steel business wasn’t open to foreign steelmakers, even if they were prepared to pay premium prices to buy into Russian steel assets. And the Russian steel sector remained just as closed when the crash came, driving most of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow After months of speculation that the recent Rothschild family flotation Vallar Plc would buy a Russian iron-ore or coalminer, Vallar has announced in London that instead it is buying an Indonesian steam coal group owned by Aburizal Bakrie (right image). Bakrie is described in the Financial Times as “arguably Indonesia’s most […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow Metalloinvest, the steel and iron-ore holding controlled by Alisher Usmanov, has issued a press release summarizing what it claims are audited financial results for the six months to June 30. The good news has been timed, and also trimmed, to boost Usmanov’s attempt to find market demand and regulatory approval for […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, Russia’s largest steelmaking group, has announced this week the creation of a special internal committee on health, safety and environment, and will appoint a new vice president to supervise these issues. A company statement says it “is focused on increasing the level of industrial safety, labour protection and care of […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 29th, 2010
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