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Russian steel companies have no plans to halt operations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Political tensions in Crimea (autonomy within Ukraine) have so far not affected the operation of Ukrainian plants owned by Russian steel companies.

Russia’s RUSAL and Evraz have large holdings, Severstal and Mechel own small enterprises in Ukraine.

Evraz owns 96.8% of shares in Dnepropetrovsk’s Petrovsky Iron and Steel Works, 99.4% of shares in the ore mining and dressing factory Sukha Balka, and 94.4% of the Bagleikoks coking plant. They account for about 6% of overall output of the company’s enterprises and for about 60% of marketable coke.

The political situation has so far not affected Evraz’ operations in Ukraine, the company said.

The Nikolaev Alumina Plant, a subsidiary of Russia’s aluminum producer RUSAL, made 1.5 million tonnes of alumina in 2013 one-fifth of the company’s output.

RUSAL said that supplies from Ukraine were stable. “The situation in Ukraine has not affected the company’s operations so far. RUSAL’s enterprises in Ukraine are operating as usual,” the company said.

RUSAL owns the only aluminum plant in Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region, which stopped aluminum production in 2011 because of high electricity prices. The plant now makes wire rods. It has the capacity to make up to 20,000 wire rods a year. The Ukrainian authorities have been trying to find a new investor for the plant but to no avail so far.

Severstal owns the Dneprometiz plant which makes steel wire, nails, fittings, and wire mesh. Last week, Alexei Mordashov, director general and principal owner of Severstal, said that Dneprometiz was working in a stable manner.

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