The Anglo-Swedish group AVESTA and Finland's OUTOKUMPU are in advanced talks in view of merging, thereby creating the second largest stainless steel producer in the world. Held to the tune of 55% by OUTOKUMPU shareholders and 45% by those of AVESTA, the new group will be called AVESTAPOLARIT with a market capitalization of 1.3 bn euro, an estimated annual turnover at 2.5 bn euro, 8,700 staff and an annual production of 1.7 million tonnes of stainless steel.