Video: Severstal Completes Sale of Columbus Plant

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LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. — Two weeks after U.S. foreign policy threatened to delay the sale of the Severstal steel mill in Lowndes County, the deal has been completed.

Severstal North America’s press office said today the Russia-based company had finalized the sale to Indiana-based Steel Dynamics. The purchase price was $1.63 billion and finalized Severstal’s exit from the U.S. steel market.

The seven-year-old Lowndes County plant which employs about 650 people gives Steel Dynamics one of the nation’s newest and most-advanced steel mini mills with a capacity of 3.4 million tons a year. That boost Steel Dynamics’ annual shipping capacity to 11 million ton s a year.

The purchase is not expected to have an impact on operations at the Lowndes County plant.

Severstal has been marketing its Lowndes County and Dearborn, Mich. plants since last December and announced the sales — AK Steel is buying the Dearborn facility — in July. But the sales were delayed while the U.S. considered how to handle sanctions against Russia — and Russian-based companies — for Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.