Huta Katowice to close deal with another foreign investor

Poland's largest steel mill Huta Katowice will sign a binding deal on Monday with Italian Danieli to create a joint venture. According to Katowice's chief executive Miroslaw Wrobel, the Italian investor will takeover Katowice's flat iron products division and would arrange financing for creating a continuos casting and hot-rolling mill. The deal will follow a similar agreement Katowice signed with Anglo-Dutch Corus Group, which will takeover Katowice's long products division. In related news, the steel sector debt reached zl. 8.7 billion last year and badly needs foreign investments. "The Treasury Ministry is already preparing a new program for restructuring the steel sector, as the previous one was badly conducted," said deputy Treasury Minister Edward Nowak. The final objectives of the new plan will be known in September. (Reuters, Gazeta Wyborcza, page 37)