Metalloinvest ups iron ore output 2.3% to 10.1 mln tonnes in Q4
MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - The Metalloinvest Group raised iron ore output 2.3% quarter-on-quarter to 10.1 million tonnes in Q4 2015, the company said in a trading update.
Production rose 1.9% to 39.5 million tonnes in 2015 as a whole.
The company increased pellet production by 3.3% q-o-q to 6.1 million tonnes in Q4 2015, while annual output reached 23.8 million tonnes, up by 5%. In September 2015, Pellet Plant #3 was launched, contributing 0.9 million tonnes to the company's annual production.
In Q4 2015, the company increased HBI/DRI production by 17.9% q-o-q to 1.4 million tonnes, enabling it to reach annual output of 5.4 million tonnes, up 3.1%.
Hot metal production in Q4 2015, amounted to 0.6 million tonnes, down by 1.1% q-o-q. In 2015, the company increased hot metal output by 7.6% to 2.5 million tonnes.
Crude steel production stayed largely flat and amounted to 1.1 million tonnes in Q4 and 4.5 million tonnes in FY 2015.
In Q4 2015, the share of shipments to the Russian market amounted to 69% vs. 71% in Q3 2015, due to an increase in supplies to Asia and Middle East and North Africa. In 2015, the Company significantly increased the share of iron ore products shipped to the domestic market to 66%, compared with 59% in 2014, due to an increase in supplies to MMK , NLMK , Evraz and Severstal .
In Q4 2015, the share of iron ore product shipments to the European market amounted to 15% of the quarterly total. As a result, the share of products shipped to Europe in FY 2015 totaled to 19% vs. 23% in 2014, mainly due to the reallocation of shipments to the domestic market.
The share of iron ore products shipped to the Asian market amounted to 9% in Q4 2015, compared with 5% in Q3 2015, mainly due to growing demand for pellets from China. In 2015, the share of iron ore product shipments to Asia slightly decreased to 10% vs. 11% in 2014
In Q4 2015, shipments to MENA amounted to 6% of the total, up from 4% in the previous quarter. In 2015, the share of iron ore products shipped to MENA remained at approximately 4%.
Metalloinvest operating results ('000 tonnes):
| Q4 2015 | Q4 2015/Q3 2015 | 2015 | 2015/2014 | |
| Production | ||||
| Iron ore | 10 091 | 2,3% | 39 464 | 1,9% |
| Pellets | 6 131 | 3,3% | 23 791 | 5% |
| HBI/DRI | 1 434 | 17,9% | 5 436 | 3,1% |
| Hot metal | 623 | -1,1% | 2 465 | 7,6% |
| Crude steel | 1 143 | -0,2% | 4 501 | -0,1% |
| Shipments | ||||
| Iron ore | 2 680 | -4,2% | 10 786 | -2,1% |
| Pellets | 3 971 | 10,4% | 14 427 | 3,9% |
| HBI/DRI | 578 | 12,7% | 2 386 | 3,8% |
| Hot metal | 449 | -6,3% | 1 837 | 4% |
| Steel products | 1 061 | -0,5% | 4 197 | 1,1% |