‘Having a plate mill constructed still sounds like a good idea; Russia can now boast a shipbuilding holding, but all the sheets have to be bought abroad, while the amount needed comes to over 1 million tons a year. Apart from that, a lot of bridges are being put up, and we could produce bridge metal for them, too,’ says Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) CEO Alexei Kushnarev.

However, the future of the project (known as Mill 5000) is still uncertain at the moment, he reports. According to Evraz Group’s press officer, the final decision will be taken at the BOD meeting at the end of June 2008.