Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works has dropped its plans to build a steel plant in the United States amid doubts over the recovery of the U.S. demand for steel, Kommersant business paper reported on Tuesday.
MMK announced plans to build a steel plant in the city of Oregon in the state of Ohio with an annual capacity of 1.5 million metric tons in September 2007. Investment in the project was expected to reach $680 million according to some estimates or exceed $1 billion in line with other assessments, the paper said.
MMK Vice-President for Finance and Economics Oleg Fedonin told Steel Business Briefing news agency that orders for steel would hardly grow amid cost-cutting programs in the European Union, adding that the company's return to the project was possible but hardly probable.
If the project had been implemented, MMK would have been the third Russian steelmaker operating in the United States. Russia's Severstal has been producing rolled steel in the United States for several years now, while in 2007 Evraz Group acquired Oregon Steel in Portland, Oregon, which turns out long-length steel products.
Kommersant said that Severstal and Evraz still hope for the recovery of steel demand in the United Sates.
MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti)
