The Russian company Severstal, whose founder and co-owner is billionaire Alexei Mordashov , has put up for sale two of its metallurgical plants in the United States, including Dearborn in Michigan and Columbus in Mississippi, expecting to receive $1.5 billion for them, reported The newspaper Wall Street Journal.

The American US Steel Corp. showed interest in the deal. and the Brazilian Companhia Siderurgica Nacional.

Pittsburgh-based US Steel is interested in purchasing the Dearborn plant to supply steel to auto plants in nearby Detroit. CSN is ready to buy both companies.

According to analysts, the sale may be associated with the risks of expanding US sanctions against Russia. But Kommersant's sources assure that Severstal's proposals began to arrive last year.

Severstal North America (part of Severstal OJSC) is one of the largest steel producers in the United States. The company integrates metallurgical and steel plants in Dearborn and Columbus. Severstal acquired the Dearborn plant, launched by Henry Ford almost a century ago, from Rouge Industries for $285.5 million and invested more than $1 billion in modernizing the plant. The Columbus plant was built from scratch.

The capacity of the two plants exceeds 3 million tons of rolled sheets per year each. The enterprises' revenue in 2013 amounted to $3.87 billion or 30% of Severstal's total revenue.

In October 2013, the US District Court of Delaware refused to find Severstal Dearborn guilty of infringing ArcelorMittal's patent for the production of high-strength aluminum-coated steel used in the automotive industry. The court also invalidated the patent for this steel reissued by ArcelorMittal, recognizing that the period during which reissue was possible had already expired.

Severstal puts up plants in the USA for sale