(Yicai Global) Dec. 21 -- A unit of Sinosteel Engineering & Technology's penned a CNY4.7 billion (USD682 million) deal with Public Joint Stock Company Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, one of Russia's largest steel companies, for a coking project with annual output of 2.5 million tons, Beijing-based Sinosteel said in a statement yesterday.  

Its Sinosteel MECC unit has signed the contract with the Russian steel mill located in Magnitogorsk in Russia's Chelyabinsk region close to the country's border with Kazakhstan, and the project will last 50 months, it added.

The contract value makes up 60 percent of Sinosteel MECC's annual audited operating income for last year, the company said, adding that the scheme will boost its development and performance in the next three to five years.

The project's final returns may diverge from expectations, however, because of the long construction period and subsequent variables such as raw material price rises, project alterations, environmental changes and production safety, the firm advised.

Editor: Ben Armour