Metalloinvest cuts iron ore output 0.9%, steel 3.5% in 2012
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - Metalloinvest produced 39.8 million tonnes of iron ore in 2012, 0.9% less than in 2011, the holding said.
Crude steel output fell 3.5% to 5.6 million tonnes.
The company produced a record 22.6 million tonnes of iron ore pellets, 1% more than in 2011. Pellets shipments grew 3.3% to 14.1 million tonnes.
Hot-briquette/direct-reduced iron (HBI/DRI) production edged up 0.4% to 5.2 million tonnes. "Despite the planned modernisation of the HBI-2 Plant in 2012, the company was able to maintain HBI/DRI output due to optimization of the maintenance schedule," Metalloinvest said.
The slight reduction of iron ore production was caused by maintenance work carried out during a period of falling prices in Q4 2012.
Pig iron production fell 15.2% last year to 2.1 million tonnes, due to major maintenance and repair works.
Russia became the company's biggest market by virtue of long-term contracts with a 50.8% share of total iron ore products shipments, amounting to 14.8 million tonnes in absolute terms and representing 62.8% year-on-year.
Shipments to China declined by 48.1% year-on-year to 5.3 million tonnes, resulting in the reduction of China's share of the company's total iron ore product shipments to 18.1%.
