Bloomberg reported that Evraz Group SA feels that steel demand is rising at most of its foreign operations and pipe orders may lead to the restart of an idled US plant.

Mr Pavel Tatyanin senior VP of Evraz, who oversees the company businesses outside Russia, said the company is working on pipe orders for 2010 in North America that may prompt the restart of Evraz 200,000 tonne a year factory at Portland in Oregon, which was idled in July.

Mr Tatyanin said demand for vanadium which Evraz produces in South Africa and the US will probably grow faster than steel as emerging economies buy more of the steel additive.

He said that “Our South African steel mill is currently operating at the highest capacity in 10 years. Evraz Italian steel plate mill has been working at full capacity since May and has sold all its November output.”

He said that the recovery in global demand will not be V-shaped it will be slow and gradual and we expect to show moderate production growth in some regions in the Q4.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)