Russian steelmaker Severstal has no plans to participate in the steel industry consolidation in Europe, according to its CFO Alexey Kulichenko who was speaking to Reuters. "Europe today does not look like an attractive option," he said when asked whether Severstal was interested in ThyssenKrupp's steel assets (such as Acciai Speciali Terni), Tata Steel's European division, or Italy's Ilva plant (currently run by ArcelorMittal). However, he indicated that the Russian company remains mindful of market opportunities.
This narrows down the list of potential partners for ThyssenKrupp, which is reportedly in talks with India-based Tata Steel, Sweden-based SSAB, Germany-based Salzgitter and with the Chinese group Baosteel.