11 Aug 2009 17:02

Ukraine's IUD delaying Armavir steel project

KRASNODAR. Aug 11 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Industrial Union of Donbass (IUD) will not start building a steel plant in Armavir in the Krasnodar territory in southern Russia until 2012, the city administration told Interfax.

The plant would not in that case be commissioned until 2016.

IUD has set an entity up, CJSC Armavir Metals Plant, and an office with 20 staff, who have now been laid off. The company's acting director, Dmitry Bobryshev, told Interfax that the project had indeed been delayed, but not called off.

"We've signed equipment supply and design contracts, and I'm not aware that we have severed any of these. Yes, there have been problems with funding and investment, due to the financial crisis," he said.

But it would not make sense to build and commission a new plant right now, with the steel market in such decline, he said.

IUD planned to invest $220 million-$250 million in the Armavir plant, which would consist of a 1.5 million tpa smelter and rolling mill capable of producing 600,000,700,000 tonnes of rolled products and 400,000-500,000 tonnes of wire products, including rebar, sections, angles, structural channels and others, per year.