Russia to buy US Rouge Steel Plant (Mich.)

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/10/27/041.html

Severstal, Russia's No. 2 steelmaker, has agreed to buy most of Rouge, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, for an undisclosed price. Dearborn, Michigan-based Rouge, the fifth-largest U.S. steel producer, will continue to operate during the bankruptcy court proceedings

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"The purchase will give us access to the U.S. market for a long time," Severstal spokeswoman Olga Yezhova said from company headquarters in Cherepovets. "Exports of Russian cold-rolled steel for cars to the United States face limits now."

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The transaction, which requires bankruptcy court approval, would be one of the most significant Russian investments in a U.S. company. Earlier this year, Norilsk Nickel, Russia's largest metals mining and smelting company, paid $132 million for 55.5 percent of the Stillwater Mining Co., the only platinum and palladium producer based in the United States. And in 2001, in the first Russian purchase of a publicly held American company, oil major LUKoil bought Getty Petroleum and its network of 1,300 U.S. gas stations for $71 million.

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"Their rubles are as good as anybody else's," David Healy, an auto industry analyst with Burnham Securities, said Friday. "If the Russians are the only game in town, let's play it."
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