EVRAZ

Evraz Group is the largest producer of steel and steel products in Russia, with 16.3 million tonnes of crude steel produced in 2007. The company’s production volumes make it one of the 15 largest steel producers in the world.

Evraz Group was founded in 1992 as a small metal trade company, Evroazmetall. During the first few years, the company’s turnover and field of activity steadily expanded. During the mid-1990s, Evroazmetall became involved in settling debts between Russian mining and metallurgy plants. The firm accumulated promissory notes of several steel plants, coal mines and concentrating factories. This led to a decision to acquire equity stakes in mining concerns. In 1995, EAM Group CJSC was founded, uniting several coal, ore and steel companies.

In late 1995, EAM Group signed a strategic partnership agreement with Duferco, becoming owner of a controlling stake in Nizhny Tagil Steel Mill (NTMK), which was going through a crisis at that moment. The situation at Nizhny Tagil gradually stabilised and a process of reconstruction and modernisation was put in motion. In 1999, EAM Group starts to manage two other large steel plants, West Siberian (ZSMK) and Novokuznetsk (NKMK), while holding a significant part of those companies’ debts.

Global reinforcement of market competitiveness called for new approaches to corporate organisation. In late 1999, EvrazHolding was founded as the chief executive organ of NTMK, ZSMK and NKMK, as well as the Vysokogorsky and Kachkanarsky Ore Mining and Processing Plants, Evrazruda and Nakhodka Sea Port.

On June 2, 2005, The Company listed global depositary receipts (GDRs), representing approximately |8.3% of its issued share capital, on the Official List of the London Stock Exchange.

The Company expanded further its mining platform having acquired in 2004-2005 Mine 12, a 50% stake of Yuzhkuzbassugol, an interest in Raspadskaya coal company, which moves Evraz closer to complete self-sufficiency in key raw materials. The acquisitions of rolling mill Palini & Bertoli (August 2005) in Italy and of Vitkovice Steel a.s. (November 2005), the largest platemaker in the Czech Republic, further diversified the Company’s product mix into value added areas as well as providing access to customers within the European Union.

In 2006, Evraz acquired a 73% in Strategic Minerals Corporation, USA, one of the world’s leading producers of vanadium alloys and chemicals for the steel, chemical, and titanium industries, and a 24.9% stake in Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation, South Africa, increasing it to 54.1% in May 2007.

Thanks to the acquisition of Oregon Steel Mills in January 2007, Evraz has secured an important place on the attractive plate market and in the expanding pipe business in North America and became the leading rail producer globally.