Metinvest to build HRC plant in Italy

Ukraine’s Metinvest is exploring the possibility, together with Danieli, to build a new hot rolled coil plant in Italy, Kallanish notes.

“The project involves the construction of a new production facility in Italy, where Ukrainian slabs will be rolled into hot-rolled flat products,” Metinvest general director Yuri Ryzhenkov said at a press conference in Kiev on the company’s 15th anniversary on Wednesday.

“We already have two factories in Italy, where flat-rolled products are produced from Ukrainian slabs … Metivest is seriously considering building a new hot coil mill and we are negotiating with the potential owners of the site, and with Italian officials,” he added. “However, we did not make a final decision on this project and it is now at the pre-feasibility stage, but the construction of a plant is planned.”

The steelmaker’s strategy involves producing semi-finished product in Ukraine and then rolling it into high-quality finished products in target markets, said Ryzhenkov. “Italy is one of this key target markets for us and one of the main importing markets in the EU,” he concluded. Metinvest plans to make an official statement about its final decision for this project in the future.

The new plant should be built in the industrial area of Trieste, in the town of Muggia. The Friuli Venezia Giulia region officially approved last month a letter of interest received from the town of Muggia and the local economic development association for the construction of the new steelworks.

Danieli president Gianpietro Benedetti told Italian press that project is estimated to have a value of between €600-700 million ($716-835m) for a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes/year, and provide over 400 new jobs.

Earlier this month, Metinvest announced the beginning of construction of a new cold-rolled, galvanised and colour-coated coil production facility at its Ilyich Steelworks in Mariupol (see Kallanish passim).

The plant’s capacity will be 1.6m t/y. Total investment will exceed $1 billion. The company intends to complete the project by 2025. The group signed a contract with Danieli to supply the equipment.

Metinvest decreased consolidated crude steel production in the first quarter by 2% on-year to 2.13mt. Hot metal output however rose by 3% to 2.15mt.

Natalia Capra France , Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria