MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russian steel giant Severstal announced on Thursday operational changes at its facilities in the United States due to deteriorating economic conditions and a further decline in orders from customers.
"The steelmaking and hot rolling operations at Severstal Wheeling Inc. [West Virginia] will remain idled. In addition, the cold rolling and coating operations at Wheeling will also be temporarily idled in the coming weeks while the company balances production with orders across its business," Severstal said in a statement on its website.
Earlier the steelmaker announced a suspension of operations of the steel galvanizing line at its Severstal Warren Inc. plant in Ohio.
"Further to that announcement, all production and finishing operations at Warren will be idled indefinitely until there is an improvement in market conditions," Severstal said.
Severstal earlier announced that its net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards increased 9.9% in 2008 year-on-year to $2.03 billion.
The company accounts for over 16% of Russian steel output and has production facilities in Russia, the United States, Italy, France, Britain and Ukraine.
