YEKATERINBURG -- Russia's largest chrome producer expects output of the metal to recover from the summer after a drop in demand led to an abrupt halt to production last year.

RosSpetsSplav is now running its Klyuchevsky Ferro-Alloy Plant at 40 percent to 50 percent of its monthly capacity of 600 tons and expects production this year to almost match 2008 levels, said Vyacheslav Grigoryev, the company's president. "From March and April, we see real demand from end-users," Grigoryev said in comments approved for publication on Monday.

Privately owned RosSpetsSplav, or Russian Special Alloys, slashed output in response to the economic downturn, which cut demand for chrome.

Klyuchevsky Ferro-Alloy Plant, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals, halted production for a week in November and for 10 days in December. Output last year fell to 6,460 tons from 9,004 tons in 2007.

Grigoryev said the Klyuchevsky plant produced 200 tons of chrome metal in March, up from 38 tons in the whole of the fourth quarter of 2008. "This year, we will produce a little less than last year," he said. "But we see no ill in that, as we expect a slow but gradual rise in output from the summer."

Klyuchevsky produces more than 30 ferro-alloys used to toughen steel and is the only plant in Russia able to produce ferro-niobium, an alloy used to make high-quality pipes.

The company has a unit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Russia Industry, which participates in a project to mine niobium there. This project was restarted recently. "As the political situation [in Congo] has returned to normal, we have started producing niobium concentrate," Grigoryev said.

"The first concentrate sales will start in the next few weeks. It is an investment project that will start to pay back," he said, adding that a deal was planned to sell concentrate to a British company, which he would not identify.

Grigoryev said the financial crisis had also benefited the Klyuchevsky plant, as the price of raw materials had fallen more than the price of chrome.

The company buys chromite ore mainly from Turkey's Cihan Mining and Metal Company.

"Currently offered volumes are very significant, which allows us to agree terms with new suppliers," Grigoryev said.