Severstal, a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, agreed to sell Mini-Mill Balakovo, a steel mill in Russia, to Abinsk Electric Steel Works, a steel bars manufacturer, for $215m. Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal, commented: “Following the sale of Mini-Mill Balakovo, we plan to focus on developing steel production at our main asset, the Cherepovets Steel Mill. We are confident that this will enable us to streamline our internal processes to execute our updated strategic priorities successfully. We are committed to providing our customers with integrated solutions and increasing our production of high value-added products. At the same time Severstal will continue to supply long products via our long product facilities at CherMK. Mini-Mill Balakovo was the first producer of long products in the Volga Federal District and has become known as a trusted supplier of high-quality products. We believe that the Mini-Mill still has a lot of potential and will benefit from the new shareholder’s focus on long product production.”