May 23--Evraz Group, the debt-laden Russian company that owns Oregon Steel, may close its Portland rolling mill for as long as a month this summer, a trade journal says.

The report follows the company's disclosure that it has pledged Canadian and Siberian mills as collateral for an $800 million loan from a Russian government bail-out bank chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Evraz Group, which owed $9.986 billion as of Dec. 31, disclosed in its April 30 annual report that it had also borrowed against its Oregon and Colorado mills. But the lenders in that case are U.S. institutions that would be unable to nationalize Oregon Steel -- as Moscow could presumably do with the Canadian mills if Evraz defaulted.

The moves come as Russia's petroleum-stoked economy skids sideways.

"The financial situation now in Russia is worse than ours," said Marshall Goldman, a Harvard University expert on Russia who spoke in Beaverton Wednesday.

"Our stock market is down 40 percent," Goldman said. "Their stock market is down 80 percent. The Russians are not used to these kinds of traumas."

Evraz managers said in April they would lay off up to 225 workers from their Portland spiral-pipe and steel mill. The job cuts came after Evraz axed about 130 Portland workers last year, leaving about 870 employees.

An Evraz Inc. North America spokeswoman declined to comment Friday on the reported plans to shut down the Portland mill.

Evraz bought Oregon Steel Mills Inc. in January 2007 for $2.35 billion. The company acquired Ipsco Canada in June 2008 for $2.4 billion. It also bought companies in Colorado and Delaware.

U.S. authorities who authorized the Oregon Steel purchase apparently included provisions blocking future takeover by the Russian government. A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman could not be reached Friday to describe the prohibitions.

Harvard's Goldman said the future of Oregon Steel depends more on the world ferrous-metal market than on political and economic machinations in Russia.

Putin, who has cracked down on so-called oligarchs who stripped assets from Russian companies, favors the billionaire who controls Evraz, Goldman said. Roman Abramovich, who also owns Britain's Chelsea soccer team, has never crossed the powerful prime minister, Goldman said.

Therefore Putin, who has installed his own cohorts to replace other oligarchs, gives Abramovich uncommon latitude, Goldman said.

Evraz shares have plummeted, falling from $118 last June on the London Stock Exchange to single digits by year's end. They closed Friday at $19.75, up 72 cents or 3.78 percent.

Richard Read: 503-294-5135; richread@aol.com

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