Russian mining and steel group Evraz announced its capital expenditure for the next three years at $1 billion per year, while its planned investments for 2019-2022 had been previously been set at $830-990 million per year. Half of the amount will be spent on maintenance and more than 30 percent of the total investments will be for new projects, including the integrated flat casting and rolling facility at EVRAZ ZSMK.
The decision to implement the construction of the facility with a planned capacity of 2.5 million mt of flat steel products per year at ZSMK will be announced in October 2020 and the preliminary date of the production start is 2023. About 1.5 million mt of coils from the new mill are expected to be sold inside Russia and 1 million mt will be exported, according to the company’s report. It will help to replace slabs sales from ZSMK by more high-value added products. Total capital expenditure in the project is assessed at $647 million.
The other investment project of Evraz is the construction of a new 100-m rail mill in Pueblo, US, with a capacity of 630,000 mt per year. The launch is planned for 2022.
The company is also going to spend about $180 million in total in the rail and beam mill modernisation at EVRAZ NTMK.
As a result, Evraz will be able to increase sales volumes and profits. In 2024, the total sales of steel from the Russian assets of Evraz will reach 10.7 million mt, while the target for 2019 was set at 9.9 million mt. Owing to higher HRC sales, finished steel sales are expected to increase by 3 million mt to 8.4 million mt in 2024.