By John Helmer in Moscow A client alert was issued Thursday by Deutsche Bank analyst Olga Okunova, warning that even if the Mechel Group succeeds in refinancing a $1.5 billion loan, which has been overdue since March, the group faces serious cash shortage and debt service problems this year and next. Mechel has made new […]

by Editor - Friday, June 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow There wasn’t much that the two Steptoes could ever agree on in the near-50 year old English comedy series about the scrap business — except that they would have sold out, if anyone was buying. There is nothing at all comical about the Rashnikov family. But now brother Victor has […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 5th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), Russia’s anti-trust watchdog, announced this week that it has opened an official investigation of the State Customs Service (FTS). The head of the FAS, Igor Artemyev, is a careful St. Petersburg apparatchik, who has made a 5-year career of running the anti-trust agency without getting […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 28th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Mechel steel and coal group has failed for the second time in two months to agree with its bankers on repayment of a year-old $1.5 billion loan. The news, first issued in Moscow as trading commenced on the New York Stock Exchange, where Mechel is listed, dropped the share […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Fitch, the international ratings agency owned by the Paris-listed Fimalac, has issued a downgrade notice for Severstal, lowering its issuer default and senior unsecured ratings from BB to BB-. The agency has also placed Severstal on a further watch for the possibility of deteriorating financial information leading to a further […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 25th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Alexei Mordashov, controlling shareholder and chief executive of the Moscow-based Severstal group, has set a sale price on the group’s North American assets of $3.6 billion, according to a source close to the company. Lazard Freres is the investment banking firm advising Mordashov on the deal. The disclosure comes after […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 21st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian steelmakers in Moscow have confirmed that their export surge towards China, on which the revival of Russian mill capacity is currently based, is now threatened by an anti-dumping (AD) inquiry launched by Beijing. According to an unconfirmed report from Interfax China this week, Beijing has ordered an AD investigation […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 21st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Severstal, the third-ranked Russian steelmaker, continues to suffer from owner and chief executive Alexei Mordashov’s past ambitions to be the world’s largest steelmaker, with safe-haven production lines in the United States. What has already happened to other Russian oligarchs has arrived for Mordashov: caught in the ring with his bankers, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Evraz, the most heavily indebted of Russia’s steelmakers, has refused to respond to questions about disclosures in its annual financial report for 2008, released on April 30, that the Russian group has pledged virtually its entire shareholding stakes in its North American assets, and in its lead longs mill, West […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A report issued this week warns that Russian steelmills may try to export their way out of the current global economic crisis, exploiting their low-cost power and raw material advantages, and creating a potential glut in global steel supplies for another twelve months or longer. Steel analysts from the Swiss […]

by John Helmer - Friday, April 10th, 2009
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