Severstal North America will receive its first lot of hot rolled coils of IF (interstitial free) steel from JSC Severstal as part of the company’s efforts to develop, commercialize and expand its IF steel deliveries to domestic and foreign markets, according to V.V. Rahuba, Project Manager.

The size of the trial lot that will be produced in June is 480 tons, in which the hot-rolled coils will be re-rolled and galvanized at Severstal North America. Then the Severstal-rolled product will be shipped to Ford and to Kenwal service center.

Severstal shipped 17.7 thousand tons of IF steel rolled products in the first quarter of 2004, and 24 thousand tons are planned for the 2nd quarter. In comparison, 21.3 thousand tons were shipped in all of 2003.

The major consumers of rolled stock based on IF steel are currently European service centers in Spain, Italy, France and Germany, working with the largest automotive enterprises and home appliances' manufacturers. The rolled product is also sold in Russia, exported to Belarus, Uzbekistan, India, South Korea, China, Turkey, the USA and Mexico.