Nickel producer Ufaleynickel posts losses in Q1
CHELYABINSK. May 17 (Interfax) - Nickel producer Ufaleynickel, a member of the Industrial Metallurgical Holding (IMH), closed Q1 2011 with net losses of 77.446 million rubles to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), compared with profit of 20.381 million rubles in the same period of last year, the company said.
Sales revenue grew 36.6% year-on-year to 2.413 billion rubles.
The company did not say why it swung to losses, but it did say that higher unit costs and changing nickel prices affected revenue.
Ufaleynickel closed 2010 with net profit of 1.954 million rubles, compared with 496.357 million rubles losses in 2009. Sales revenue soared 130% to 8.881 billion rubles.
Ufaleynickel has the capacity to produce 14,000-15,000 tonnes of nickel per year. It boosted saleable nickel output 55.3% in 2010 to 10,025 tonnes, including 3,879 tonnes of H-3 nickel. Sales on the domestic market doubled to 5,512 tonnes, and exports were a flat 4,400 tonnes.
Four of the company's five furnaces have been operating since February.
IMH controls metallurgical, coke and coal enterprises in Russia and Slovenia. They include coke producer Koks , Ufaleynickel, Tulachermet, metals companies Polema and Tulachermet-Vanadii in the Tula region, Rezhnikel in the Sverdlovsk region.