OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2010. Evraz Group (LSE: EVR) ("Evraz" or the "Company") announces the temporary closure of the steel shop at Evraz Vitkovice Steel (“EVS”), the Company’s Czech subsidiary, with effect from 1st July. The closure marks the current failure in negotiations between Evraz Vitkovice Steel and ArcelorMittal Ostrava over the prices for hot iron supplied by ArcelorMittal Ostrava.

Evraz Vitkovice Steel fully proved its commitment for constructive dialogue and accepted AMO’s pricing formula proposal as a basis for further negotiations over the formula’s base price. ArcelorMittal Ostrava effectively rejected the proposal of EVS regarding the base price and officially stated that its position was unchanged.

The current annual steelmaking capacity of EVS is 950,000 tonnes of steel. The temporary closure of the steel shop will not in any way influence the plant's rolling production which will be maintained at the level achieved in recent months. EVS's rolling requirements will be covered by the supply of slabs from suppliers in Slovakia, Ukraine, Turkey, as well as Evraz's NTMK plant in Russia.

All the EVS steel shop workers will be required to remain in their positions or on standby, so that, if agreement with ArcelorMittal Ostrava is reached, they would be able to start up the steel shop immediately. The temporary closure plan also counts on alternative employment for the steel shop workers during the month of August, should the steel shop remain closed. There are no plans to lay off any workers during the temporary shutdown period.