European Company Looks to Build Minimill in Ukraine

Euro Finance, which controls six Ukrainian scrap metal collection companies, is planning to invest $300 million to build a steel minimill in the Kiev region of  Ukraine.

The annual capacity of the new facility is expected to be 1million metric tons of steel.

"The project of the mini plant is a natural movement towards vertical integration so that in the future, scrap metal recycling could earn fair money," says Valentyn Makarenko, vice president of Euro Finance. The company hopes to break ground on the project next year, with completion by 2008.

According to a report in Global Trade Review, equipment to be installed at the facility will include an electric arc furnace, a stove-basket, a continuous casting plant, and a rolling mill.

The article continued, noting that the company already has had some discussions with a number of other Ukrainian metal producers – opened JSC Silur (Khartsyzsk, Donetsk region) and opened JSC Stalkanat (Odesa), Makarenko says. "I think we'll find a common language so that they do not import rolled wire, but buy it in Ukraine," Makarenko adds.

The company will directly work with domestic consumers, including construction firms.

Euro Finance was founded in 2004 by Swiss Euro Steel Holdings and owns controlling stakes in the following scrap metal collection companies: CJSC Kyivvtormet, CJSC Vtorychni Resursy (Kirovohrad), OJSC TernopilVtorMet, OJSC AleksandriaVtorMet (Kirovohrad region), OJSC Zaporizhia Vtormet, and OJSC Vtormet (Odessa).  Global Trade Review