Russian steelmaker Evraz has announced it has added 100 new jobs to operate a new USD 100 million production facility in Regina that creates large tubular steel pipes.

Mr Greg Maindonald vice president and general manager of Evraz’s Regina branch said that the economic downturn is hurting the industry elsewhere in North America, but Saskatchewan is the exception. He said that "We do manufacture some plate steel in our other plants and that’s softened a bit, but it’s still fairly strong with some of the infrastructure buildings going on in North America."

Mr Greg Maindonald said that "Here in Saskatchewan we’re fortunate to have a fairly strong economy and there’s still a lot of drilling going on so we’re confident we can always ride the storm."

The expansion cost about USD 90 million and USD 23 million more had to be spent to expand the plant’s steel mill to meet the demand coming from the new plant.

Evraz said the purchase was part of Evraz’s strategy to consolidate a strong base in North America for downstream steel products, such as steel plates and tubes.