By John Helmer, Moscow After almost a year of inconclusive negotiations with a secretive South African group called Nemascore, Evraz, the Russian steelmaker and miner, has announced to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that negotiations have opened to sell its control stake in Highveld Steel & Vanadium to new buyers. The notice to the exchange last […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, February 27th, 2014
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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, the steelmaking group owned by Roman Abramovich (third figure from left) and Alexander Abramov (fourth from left), has just issued a notice to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that it has been unable to complete the proposed sale of its South African unit, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, by a December 31 […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Friday, December 20th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, the steelmaking group owned by Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, has revealed that it cannot complete the sale of its South African steel subsidiary, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, on time, and that the South Africans are the reason for the fresh delay. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Mining, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, September 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The attempt by the Evraz steel group, owned by Roman Abramovich and others, to sell its South African steelmaking asset, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, for double its market value appears to have failed. The deadline Evraz had earlier announced for closing the deal with a South African front company called Nemascore […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow There has been no movement in Evraz’s proposed sale of its South African unit, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, to Nemascore, a special purpose vehicle created in February by a black empowerment enterprise linked to South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma (right). The deal for $320 million was announced by Evraz in March. […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Announcing its sale of the South African asset, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, to Nemascore, a company created just weeks before, Evraz issued the following announcement: “EVRAZ announces intention to sell its South African steel mill. EVRAZ plc…announces the signing of a non-binding term sheet in respect of the proposed sale of […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, April 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Nemascore, the South African buyer of Evraz Highveld, the loss-making steel and vanadium producer, is run by a part-time lawyer, a part-time entrepreneur, and the part-time executive of Fire Check, a Durban-based company specializing for the past twenty years in installing home and office fire alarms around that east coast city. […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Steel by John Helmer - Friday, April 12th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow If 85% of something was worth $320 million on March 27, then full value would be about $377 million. And if that something is identified as Highveld Steel & Vanadium Ltd. — a major South African producer of flat steel products and vanadium with which to harden steel — then how […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Nonferrous Metals, Steel by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
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By John Helmer in Moscow A lion, who copies a lion, is an ape. That is Victor Hugo, France’s 19th century poet hero, talking of the difference between writers and hacks. If Hugo had lowered (or raised) himself to think of steelmakers, his remark might inspire sceptical reflection on what is really happening in the […]

Filed under: Mining, Steel by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) — What is it that is drawing Russians like Victor Vekselberg and Alisher Usmanov to South Africa? In Russian villages, the peasants used to say that where there’s honey, there will always be flies. By that, they mean flies, not bees – raiders, not producers. For Vekselberg, manganese is the honey; for Usmanov, […]

Filed under: Steel by John Helmer - Friday, February 3rd, 2006
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