EvrazPlc said July 14 that it has started the construction of a newblast furnace, with the production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of pig ironper year, at the EVRAZ NizhnyTagil Metallurgical Plant in Russia.

The new blast furnace will allow the company to maintain theproduction of pig iron at the plant at 5 million tonnes per year.

Evraz targeted up to US$170 million for the construction of theblast furnace, with the bulk of investments planned for 2017-2018.