Russia’s biggest steelmaker, Evraz Group, said it was buying Oregon Steel Mills Inc. for $2.3 billion in cash, making it one of the largest investments ever by a Russian company in the U.S. economy, the Associated Press reports.

Oregon Steel employs about 1,000 at a Colorado steel plant, 400 in Alberta, Canada, and 600 in Portland, Ore., where the company is based. The combined company would produce more than 16.8 million metric tons of crude steel a year and would have more than 17.4 million tons of steel shipments in 2006.

Industry analysts said foreign companies had made considerable inroads into ownership of U.S. steel companies over the last few years, including the acquisition of Michigan-based Severstal North America, formerly Rouge Steel Co., now owned by Russia’s Severstal Group.

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