Nyzhnyodniprovsky Pipe Rolling To Switch To EAF.

The company (NITR: BUY) announced on Tuesday it will spend USD 410 mln on the construction of a steel smelting workshop with a capacity of 1.32 mln mt of billets. The new facilities will replace NITR’s open hearth workshop with a high tech and energy efficient electric arc furnace process not reliant on natural gas. The EAF will be equipped with concasting technology. The project is expected to be completed 26 months after the company signs the contract with the equipment suppliers. Concorde Capital: Nyzhnyodniprovsky Pipe Rolling has been considering the construction of an EAF workshop since 2004. The company has already selected a site for the workshop and held negotiations with the equipment producers. The project will grant NITR a unique technological advantage over its Ukrainian peers. It will significantly reduce the cost of NITR’s production and improve its quality. The company will be able to increase both its pipe and railway wheel output made from in-house steel. NITR’s current steel making capacities of ~700 ths mt per year are not sufficient to meet pipe and wheel making needs with internally produced steel.