Severstal is expected to announce a buyer of the idled Sparrows Point steel mill within days — and possibly as soon as tomorrow — with all signs pointing to the Renco Group as the purchaser, multiple sources told The Brew.

Repair crews have been told to stand ready to return to the steel mill in anticipation of the new owner, who is expected to ramp up production, sources close to the situation said.

As previously reported, Renco Group, an investment company owned by billionaire Ira Rennert, signed a letter of intent with Severstal North America to purchase the Baltimore County facility along with two other Severstal mills in Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, W.Va.

The recall of repair crews is a sign that the lengthy layoffs of steelworkers may be coming to an end. Severstal idled steel production last July and has since furloughed more than 1,200 employees. This week, however, millwrights and other personnel were told to report back to work.

But before production can begin, iron ore and other raw materials sold off by Severstal need to be replenished. A tentative start-up date of April 1 has been floated in anticipation of the sale of the property.

It is not known whether all laid-off employees will return to work or whether the union has accepted job cutbacks as previously demanded by Severstal.

In addition to signing a letter of intent, Renco Group reached a labor agreement with the United Steelworkers union (USW), a pre-condition for any sale of the mill. Currently steelworkers are governed by a contract that expired in 2008 and is renewed on a day-by-day basis.

Biggest Purchase Yet for Renco Group

The purchase of the three Severstal mills would be the largest transaction ever by Renco, which was founded by junk-bond financier Ira Rennert in 1975 and started out with a single company, the Consolidated Sewing Machine Corp.

Piecing together a string of companies in such unglamorous industries as mining, mineral recovery, automotive assembly and warehouse installations, Renco currently boasts annual revenues of $5 billion and bills itself as “a long-term investor committed to private ownership.”

Among its properties are AM General, maker of the High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle (or Humvee); U.S. Magnesium, which extracts magnesium from the brine of Utah’s Great Salt Lake; and Doe Run Co., a lead smelter with facilities in Missouri and La Oroya, Peru.

USW Sparrows Point (Local 9477) president John Cirri did not return an email seeking comment today.

Severstal did not respond to queries from The Brew, while a Renco representative said, “If there are any future announcements, we will let you know.”

-Reach Mark Reutter at reuttermark@yahoo.com.