The Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) is reportedly in talks with the Switzerland-based Duferco Group to buy out its three Belgian steel producing facilities located in La Louvière, Clabecq and Marcinelle (Carsid), which have heavily suffered from the global financial crisis, Belgian media have reported. Accordingly, the negotiations are expected to be completed in December 2010.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in 2006 NLMK and Duferco created a fifty-fifty Luxembourg-based joint venture called Steel Invest & Finance S.A. (SIF), to the authorized capital of which Duferco contributed its own steel assets located in Europe and the US. For its first 50 percent share, NLMK paid some $805 million. In February 2008, the companies modified the terms of the JV agreement, according to which, effective from December 18, 2010, NLMK will have a perpetual option to buy, and Duferco to sell, all of Duferco's shares in SIF.