Viktor Pinchuk-controlled Interpipe group, Ukraine’s largest pipe maker, announced it intends to launch a steel smelting complex by December 2009, according to Ukrainian News. The electric mini-mill which is designed to supply the group’s pipe plants and has an annual capacity of 1.3 mln mt of steel. The mill will be located adjacent to Nyzhnyodniprovsk Pipe (NITR: HOLD). Italian company Danieli has signed on as a project subcontractor; a round bars producer, Dniprostal will serve as primary contractor.