KIEV, Feb. 24 – Interpipe, Ukraine’s biggest steel pipe producer, plans to complete construction of an electric furnace steelmaking complex and will start tests of its equipment by the end of 2011, Interpipe said in a statement Thursday.

The electric furnace steelmaking complex, known as DniproStal, will have capacity of 1.32 million metric tons/year of steel billets and will be the largest such facility in Central and Eastern Europe.

Interpipe, the world’s fourth largest steel pipe manufacturer, is owned by Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk.