Serbian Copper Mill Sevojno Estimates Harm from Crisis at $10 Mln - Media

VBS, owned by a consortium of Cyprus-based companies East Point Holdings and Amalco Limited, will wrap up 2008 with an 8.0% rise in output, which is below plan, Subotic said without giving an output figure. He added that demand for VBS products has dwindled by about 10% in the last quarter of 2008 but did not elaborate, B92 said.

Subotic also said that copper prices slumped to $3,000 per tonne in early December from $7,000 three months earlier, B92 said.

VBS (www.coppersev.com), headquartered in the western Serbian town of Sevojno, exported 90% of its output in the first 10 months of the year, reaping 30 million euro, B92 said.

The mill’s core activity is production of copper metal and alloys by rolling, extrusion and drawing into standard semi-finished products such as sheets, strips, foils, tubes, profiles and others.

The mill turned out 31,100 tonnes of copper and brass products in 2007 and planned to raise output to 40,300 tonnes in 2008. The VBS also planned to invest up to 10 million euro in 2008 after wrapping up a three-year investment programme worth 23 million euro in 2007.

($=0.7673 euro)