Severstal to reduce capital expenditure in 2021

Russian steelmaker and miner Severstal will invest in 2021 around $1.35 billion into major projects at its steel and resources divisions, some -20% less than in 2020.

The investments continue to form part of the firm’s $2.5 billion strategy spanning to 2023. They will include key focus strategy areas such as customer service excellence, cost leadership and new opportunities, the company says in a statement sent to Kallanish.

The firm will invest around $785 million into the steel division, with $469m invested into development projects including the second stage of coke battery No.11 construction. The latter was commissioned at the end of 2020 and is due for completion in 2022. Additionally, blast furnace No.3 will be brought to design capacity and long-range mill and heating furnaces will be upgraded.

Maintenance of existing facilities is penned at $453m, while industrial safety improvement will receive $42m, along with labour protection and environmental projects.

The resource division, incorporating mining and processing iron ore and coking coal facilities, as well as scrap procurement, will receive $524m, of which $267m will be used to develop production further.

The main phase of construction of the cycle-flow technology complex at the Karelsky Okatysh iron ore mine is one of the chief investment areas this year. This is along with the Yakovlevsky mine, leading to an increase in iron ore mining volumes to 5 million tonnes by 2023.

Ongoing works at the Vorkuta Coal coking coal mine and the development of the Pechegubsky field are aimed at increasing output by 2.4mt to 5.6m t/year in 2023, enabling 90% coking coal self-sufficiency.