OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2010. Evraz Group S.A. (LSE: EVR) (“Evraz”) has completed the first stage of the rail mill modernisation at NKMK, one of Evraz’s Russian steel plants located in Novokuznetsk, Siberia, with a capacity of 750,000 tonnes of rails per annum.

Installation of state of the art equipment will ensure premium quality of rails and satisfy requirements of the most advanced Russian and European standards for rail geometry and steel purity. Due to their enhanced quality characteristics, these rails can be used in high speed transportation, and can be sold at a premium compared to standard rails.

The investment under the first stage of the NKMK rail mill modernisation was 44 million euros. Completion of the second stage is scheduled for 2012. Once the modernisation is complete, NKMK will launch the production of 100-metre rails for high-speed transportation – a unique premium product.

Evraz is the world’s largest rail producer, and the only producer of rails in Russia. Evraz operates two rail mills in Russia (NKMK, and NTMK in Nizhy Tagil, Ural Region) and one mill in the USA (Rocky Mountain, Colorado). Evraz’s total rail mill capacity is more than 1.6 million tonnes per annum, including more than 1.1 million tonnes of rails in Russia.

Commenting, Alexander Frolov, Evraz Group’s CEO, said, “Modernisation of Evraz’s rail production in Russia, in particular at NKMK, strengthens our position as a world leading rail producer. We are aware of the growing demand for higher quality and longer rails in our key markets and interest for such rails from our major customer in Russia, RZhD – Russian Railways, and invest in modernising our production capacities in order to meet this demand.”