Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Evraz Group SA, 36 percent owned by billionaire Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, said steel demand is rising at most of its foreign operations and pipe orders may lead to the restart of an idled U.S. plant.

The company, Russia’s second-largest steelmaker, is “working on” pipe orders for 2010 in North America that may prompt the restart of Evraz’s 200,000-ton-a-year factory in Portland, Oregon, Senior Vice President Pavel Tatyanin, who oversees the company’s businesses outside Russia, said in an interview. The facility was idled in July.

“Our South African steel mill is currently operating at the highest capacity in 10 years,” Tatyanin said. Evraz’s Italian steel-plate mill has been working at full capacity since May and has sold all its November output, he added.

The collapse in commodity prices in the past year has left Evraz posting a first-half net loss while holding $8.5 billion of debt that it amassed buying steel plants in the U.S., Europe and Africa. Evraz may have to renegotiate terms with lenders, Standard & Poor’s said last month.

Demand for vanadium, which Evraz produces in South Africa and the U.S., will probably grow faster than steel as emerging economies buy more of the steel additive, Tatyanin said Oct. 28 in Moscow, where the company is based. Foreign operations make up about 75 percent of Evraz’s revenue, he said.

‘V-Shaped Recovery’

The recovery in global demand “will not be V-shaped, it will be slow and gradual,” Tatyanin said. “We expect to show moderate production growth in some regions” in the fourth quarter, he said.

Evraz wrote down the value of its assets by $880 million last year and posted a first-half loss of $987 million. Demand is still weaker in the Czech Republic, where Evraz has its Vitkovice unit, Tatyanin said.

The cost of hot-rolled coil, a benchmark steel product used in cars and construction, gained 16 percent in the third quarter, the steepest increase in more than a year, according to data compiled by Metal Bulletin. Coil in Europe, which now fetches 395 euros ($581) a metric ton, is 41 percent lower than a year ago. U.S. prices fell 35 percent.

There is concern in the steel market that China, the world’s largest steel producer, may raise exports and depress global prices, said Boris Krasnojenov, an analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Tatyanin says that’s not a concern.

“China has high-cost steel production as it relies on imports of raw materials,” he added. “China has no reason to export its steel below the cash costs.”

Evraz fell 19 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $25.56 a depository receipt as of 8:46 a.m. in London trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow ikhrennikov@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 04:56 EDT