Russian steelmaker Severstal this week announced a major change in senior management for the SeverCorr mill in Lowndes County, Mississippi.
Severstal, which funded the majority of the $880 million invested in the mill, said that it will buy out the shares of SeverCorr's CEO, John Correnti, replacing him with James Hrusovsky, who formerly served as COO of Severstal North America Inc. Other senior management at SeverCorr, including COO Mike Wagner, will also be replaced.
In addition, Severstal said that it will buy out the holding company Baracom from Severstal CEO Alexey Mordashov for $84.4 million, thus acquiring a 79.9 percent controlling stake in SeverCorr.
Severstal said in a press release that the management transition and buyout should not affect SeverCorr's operations, and the company will continue to increase the mill's production and to work on the expansion which is expected to more than double output by late 2010.
SeverCorr, which has been operational since late 2007, currently has the capacity to produce up to 1.43 million tons of automotive quality flat rolled steel per year.