Evraz North America's stand alone credit profile cut to 'b-'

Evraz North America has had its stand-alone credit profile (SACP) cut to ‘b-‘ from ‘b’ by S&P Global Ratings.

The ratings outfit cited its expectation that the steel producer would have constrained operating and financial performance in 2016, with some recovery in 2017, amid weak market conditions.

It added, however, that it continued to regard Evraz North America as a strategically important subsidiary of Evraz Group SA and therefore applied a two-notch uplift to the ‘b-‘ SACP to indicate an expectation of parental support.

S&P Global said it revised its outlook on Evraz North America to negative, from stable, and affirmed its ‘B+’ corporate-credit rating and its ‘BB’ issue rating on the company’s senior high-yield bond.

“The negative outlook reflects that on Evraz Group, as well as our expectation that weakness in the steel market will persist over the next 12 months, continuing to weight on Evraz North America’s operating performance,” S&P Global said.