In another example of the growing international influence of the new breed of Russian billionaires, Vladimir Lisin's Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, the second-largest steelmaker by market value and the fourth-largest by volume in Russia, said Thursday that it had agreed to pay $400 million in cash for US hot-rolled steel producer Beta Steel to expand its market in the region.

Beta, based in Portage, Indiana, will provide unprocessed steel for NLMK's most recent American acquisition, John Maneely Co., a steel pipe manufacturer, which it agreed to buy last month for $3.53 billion. (See: Novolipetsk Steel to acquire John Maneely Company from The Carlyle Group for $3.53 billion)

"This acquisition is fully in line with our commitment to develop a strong footprint in the US high value-added finished steel market," Novolipetsk Steel's president and chief executive, Alexei Lapshin, said. The deal, which Novolipetsk will finance from existing funds and available credit lines, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Steel makers in Russia, the world's fourth-largest producer, have acquired around 10 per cent of US steel-making capacity in the last few years as they spend billions of dollars from record profits betting on steel demand in North America. Russia's biggest steelmaker, Severstal, in the last year has spent more than $1.7 billion on US steel mills, and recently agreed to buy miner PBS Coals for a further $1.3 billion. (See: Russian steelmaker Severstal buys American coal miner for $1.3 billion)

Evraz Group and TMK, the country's biggest steel pipe manufacturer, have also made such acquisitions in the last year.

"NLMK's strategy is aimed at portfolio diversification and downstream integration in the core markets of the company, including the European Union and the United States, because it strengthens NLMK's position and provides an entry point into an important and high-margin end market," a Novolipetsk spokesman said on Thursday.

The Beta acquisition "completes the creation of a large, vertically integrated pipe and tube producer in North America comprising the assets of John Maneely Co., Beta Steel and Duferco Farrell," NLMK said in its statement.

In addition to providing hot-rolled steel for John Maneely, Beta - located in the heart of the so-called Rust Belt in the US Midwest - will add to the vertically integrated stature of the company by being located near significant suppliers of scrap metal. The Midwest accounts for 60 per cent of the country's hot-rolled coil consumption and 40 per cent of scrap generation, NLMK said in its statement.

Also, Beta is located on Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes, which gives it convenient access to the eastern seaboard, as well as allowing it to be easily supplied by John Maneely's New Jersey-based Atlas Division.

Beta Steel operates an electric arc furnace with an annual capacity of 800,000 short tons, or 725,000 metric tonnes, plus a hot-rolling mill with an annual capacity of 1.2 million short tons, or 1.1 million metric tonnes.

The company sold 602,000 short tons (547,000 metric tonnes) last year, generating revenue of $324 million and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $21 million.

NLMK, whose first-half net profit rose 44 per cent to $1.53 billion year on year, has annual revenues of about $7.7 billion and employs 70,000 people across Russia, Europe and the US.

Vladimir Lisin, chairman of NLMK, is not only immensely wealthy, but he is also highly educated. Besides being a graduate of the Siberian Metallurgic Institute, his credentials include an MSc in 1989, a PhD in engineering and DSc in economics.

Starting his career as a steelworker after graduation, he rose up the ranks, got further educational degrees, eventually rising to deputy head of one of Soviet Union's biggest steel mills. In 1991, when his boss was appointed Minister of Metallurgy, Lisin came with him to Moscow.

In 1992 joined up with tough group of traders who called themselves the Trans-World Group; they came to dominate Russia's aluminum and steel exports; Lisin managed the factories. When the partners went their separate ways in 2000, Lisin got a majority stake in Russia's giant Novolipetsk steel mill as his share. In 2007 Forbes listed him as being worth $3.8 billion, making him the 124th richest man in the world.