Maxim Barskiy, being an experienced businessman, contributed a lot to the development of Sibanthracite. Below you will find an account of how the strategy, suggested and pursued by Barskiy, enabled the company to evolve as an industry leader.
Maxim Barskiy and Sibanthracite: Company background
The size and significance of Sibanthracite’s business make the group one of the country’s flagship coal producers. The Siberia-based group is regarded both domestically and globally as a leading producer and supplier of high-quality – Ultra High Grade (UHG) – anthracite. UHG anthracite, which has a submetallic lustre and high carbon content, is considered to be the best coal with the fewest impurities and the highest level of energy density.
Background information insert: UHG anthracite is widely used in a number of heavy industries, including production of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as of electrodes, carbides and silicon alloys.
Sibanthracite’s key export market is China, where it has repeatedly been recognized as the best and most reliable coal supplier. In 2020, the group was nominated by its Chinese partners for an industry-sponsored award from Mysteel.com. The coal producer was nominated primarily for the superb quality of its products, steady and reliable shipments, as well as on the basis of its customers’ positive feedbacks.
Maxim Barskiy and Sibanthracite: Business evolution stages
Barskiy Maxim worked for Sibanthracite in 2018-2020, starting off as the group’s chief operating officer and promoted later to the chief executive role. When he had got to know better the industry’s key trends, Barskiy designed and began to implement a business development strategy to improve the group’s operating and financial performance.
By the moment Barskiy joined Sibanthracite, the group had two key production assets – two companies, Siberian Anthracite and Vostochny Open-Pit Mining, developing two adjacent coal fields and producing coals of the same grade.
Barskiy Maxim Gennadievich realized that this situation creates an unjustified competition between independently managed assets controlled by the same parent entity. So, he took steps to integrate the two assets’ management under a holding-level structure, adding to the portfolio a third production asset – Kiyzasskiy Open-Pit Mining, a Kemerovo region-based producer of lean coals (T-grade under local classification).
Maxim Parskiy offered a new approach to the coal business management. His next initiative was to develop direct partnerships with the group’s prospective customers. To this end, the group’s senior executives were visiting some major steel-makers in Japan, India, South Korea and China to meet these companies’ leadership and establish direct contacts with the end users of Sibanthracite products, cutting out intermediaries.
Secure partnerships with the end users helped the group to expand its customer base, boost its sales, and improve its global market positions and investment case.
Maxim Barskiy’s efforts led Sibanthracite to become a leader of the coal industry, both domestically and internationally.
Sibanthracite: An industry leader
Under Maxim Barskiy’s leadership the group continued to expand its business on a global scale. One of the key decisions made by the new chief executive was to cancel the group’s contracts with Carbo One Ltd, one of the country’s leading coal traders, which came to be regarded as an unnecessary competitive supplier. Sibanthracite’s new marketing strategy implied that it buys up 90% of lean coals produced by Kiyzasskiy Open-Pit Mining, blends them with higher-quality products and sells the resulting blend directly to end-users.
Barskiy Maxim Genadievich suggested that a new coal brand should be offered to the market. The group began to blend the coals, which used to be bought up and resold by Carbo One, with its own anthracite. The resulting blend’s superior qualities were recognized by the group’s global customers, enabling it to expand substantially its market shares in India and China.
Next, the group, led by Maxim Barskiy, moved on to expand and develop its logistics and coal transportation network. It became the first of the country’s coal producers to partner up with a specialized bulk cargoes terminal in the seaport of Taman. This partnership helped the group to boost its exports to the Asia-Pacific countries, including India, enabling it to increase the size of its coal shipments and speed up business turnover.
Before long, the group began to use the Northeast Passage. Sibanthracite established a strategic partnership with the port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, which enabled it to launch regular coal shipments to South Korea.
The fourth part of Maxim Barskiy’s strategy involved discontinuing the practice of outsourcing some of its key operations to third-party subcontractors. Earlier, Vostochny and Kiyzasskiy used to outsource most of their mining operations, often putting up with substandard quality of the subcontractors’ performance. This practice was actually putting pressure on the group’s efficiency and damaging its reputation. Maxim Gennadievich Barskiy put the group’s in-house experts in charge of all its mining operations and processes. The centralized control and management system helped to optimize mining operations, improve their safety standards and minimize the group’s environmental footprint.
Having consolidated control over the entire chain of mining operations and logistics, Sibanthracite was able to minimize its coal production costs and overheads, maintaining the superior quality of its products.
Under Maxim Barskiy’s leadership Sibanthracite set a business management system benchmark for other companies of the coal industry.
Sibanthracite: Environment risks and sustainable growth
The group pays a lot of attention to safety standards and does a lot to minimize risks both for its employees and the environment. The importance of these aspects was seen and taken into account by Maxim Barskiy. Under his guidance, Sibanthracite was actively introducing innovative production methods and technologies both to improve the efficiency of its operations and minimize their impact on the environment.
The most advanced digital solutions often help to minimize the greenhouse effect. Kizasskiy began to use for mining operations LNG-powered haul trucks to minimize the vehicles’ particulate matter and sulphuric emissions.
Post-mining rehabilitation and reclamation of the environment is another very important aspect for Sibanthracite. It was one of the key factors for Maxim Barskiy who has always been an enthusiastic proponent of sustainable and responsible business practices.
The Siberian coal producer uses environment-friendly waste dumping methods, implying that waste rocks are stockpiled in specially designated and properly equipped places only. The stockpiles are stabilized with polymer mesh to be later reclaimed and eventually become part of the natural environment.
In 2020, Maxim Gennadievich Barskiy stepped down as the group’s chief executive officer.
