15th Feb 2008 08:25
OAO Severstal15 February 2008 SeverStal Announces Initial Assessment of "B" Blast Furnace Outage at Severstal North America, Inc. Moscow, February 15, 2008: OAO Severstal (RTS: CHMF, LSE: SVST) has announcedtoday preliminary information regarding the initial operational impact relatedto the outage of "B" Blast Furnace at its Severstal North America, Inc. ("SNA")subsidiary in Dearborn, Mich. SNA's "B" Blast Furnace, the smaller of two blast furnaces used to produce pigiron for subsequent conversion to steel, has been shut down following a breachof the Furnace's shell. This has resulted in an approximate 35% reduction ofSNA's overall production volume. The Company expects to refurbish "B" Blast Furnace in full and estimates thatthe outage and decline in overall production will last for 18-24 months. "C" blast furnace is operating as planned and production is expected to reachcapacity late in Q308. As part of Severstal's recently announced US$1 billion investment in NorthAmerica, the modernization of SNA's production for the manufacture of a widerrange of automotive steel sheet products and grades remains on track. Themodernization process supports SNA's continued adherence to strict internal andexternal safety standards and is planned to improve the overall efficiency ofoperations. Alexey Mordashov, CEO of OAO Severstal, said: "Our investment in SNA is a keyaspect of our overall business. We remain focused on building a thrivingbusiness in North America and SNA plays an important role in our growthstrategy." Severstal will continue to report on further material developments at SNA asthey arise. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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