Evraz decided to get rid of its assets in the US and Canada
One of the largest steel and mining companies Evraz, which is under UK sanctions, plans to sell the US division, which brings in more than $300 million in profits annually.
On Wednesday, August 10, the company announced the launch of the process of collecting applications for the sale of assets of the North American division of Evraz North America (ENA), which includes enterprises in the US and Canada.
Evraz intends to enter into negotiations with the British regulator OFSI regarding the approval of the deal.
If the deal goes through, it will be the next in a series of sales of US assets by Russian metallurgists who bought these assets amid high prices. According to experts, the American division could be worth $700 million.
Evraz North America employs more than 1,400 people in the US and 1,800 people in Canada. The total capacity of the enterprises of the steelmaking division is 2.3 million tons, the capacity for the production of finished products is 3.5 million tons.
The division includes two electric steel-smelting plants, four enterprises for the production of rolled steel and eight pipe plants, as well as a scrap collection network of 17 enterprises.
The division is building a new rail production that will replace the existing one and will produce 100-meter rails by 2023.
Russian slabs from the Evraz plant in Nizhny Tagil were used at the company's plant in Portland, but their volume fell every year.
Potential buyers of the North American division could be ArcelorMittal, India's Tata Steel, China Baowu Steel Group, or some other Chinese player.
The largest shareholder of the company, Roman Abramovich, who owns 28.64% of the Evraz holding, is under the sanctions of the UK and the EU. The company itself was included in the UK sanctions list in May.