Severstal has received an additional $100 million in secured financing from GE Commercial Finance Corporate Lending for its flat-rolling steel mill in Columbus, Miss. The loan will be used to expand the mill, doubling its production capacity to 3 million tons per year. With the first phase of construction complete, it currently has the capacity to produce 1.5 million tons per year of high-quality, flat-rolled steel. The Greenfield construction of the mill began in 2005. The increase in funds brings the total project financing for the former SeverCorr operation to $577.5 million.

In 2008, Severstal has acquired Wheeling-Pittsburgh parent company Esmark Inc. (four plants in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania) and has purchased plants in Baltimore, Md., and Warren, Ohio. It also recently acquired PBS Coals, a miner and processor of metallurgical and thermal coal with six underground and six surface coal mines in Somerset County, Pa.