22 Sep 2010 14:37

Ukraine boosts ferroalloy output 74% in 8 mths

KYIV. Sept 22 (Interfax) - Ukraine boosted ferroalloy output 73.7% year-on-year in January-August to 964,900 tonnes, the Ukrainian Ferroalloy Producers' Association told Interfax.

Silicon manganese production grew 57.4% to 629,600 tonnes, ferromanganese - 210% to 196,200 tonnes, 45%-ferrosilicon - 54.8% to 129,600 tonnes and manganese metal - 2.2% to 9,500 tonnes.

Nikopol Ferroalloy Works (NFW), the biggest of Ukraine's three smelters, raised silicon manganese production 44.9% year-on-year in the eight months to 471,200 tonnes and ferromanganese 4.7-fold to 150,100 tonnes. Overall ferroalloy output at Nikopol rose 74% year-on-year to 621,300 tonnes.

The EastOne group, set up towards the end of 2007 when the Interpipe corporation was being restructured, and the Privat Group control NFW.

Zaporizhiya Ferroalloy Works (ZFW) saw silicon manganese production soar 83% to 103,200 tonnes in the eight months, with 45%-ferrosilicon output doubling to 38,200 tonnes, ferromanganese up 51.6% to 46,100 tonnes and manganese metal production rising 2.2% to 9,500 tonnes. Overall ferroalloy output at ZFW rose 71% to 197,100 tonnes.

ZFW controls 30%-35% of the Ukrainian market and exports ferroalloys to the CIS, EU, Asia and Africa. It imports concentrate from Ghana, Brazil, Australia, Russia and Poland in order to achieve the right chemical composition for ferroalloys.

PrivatBank controls ZFW and the Stakhanov Ferroalloy Plant (SZF) from Ukraine's Luhansk region, which bolstered output 41.8% to 91,300 tonnes of 45%-ferrosilicon, and 200% to 55,200 tonnes of silicon manganese. Overall ferroalloy production grew 77.4% to 146,500 tonnes.

The country's two manganese concentrate producers, the Ordzhonikidze and Marhanets mining and beneficiation plants, which PrivatBank also controls, produced 971,100 tonnes of concentrate between them in January-August - 88.4% more than they produced in the same period of last year.

The State Statistics Committee said Ukraine boosted manganese ore and concentrate exports 7.2-fold year-on-year in January-July 2010 and 8.5-fold to $2.961 million.

The country exported 26,136 tonnes to Romania for $2.71 million in the seven months, 1,963 tonnes to the Czech Republic for $16,800 and 1,379 tonnes to Russia for $83,600.

Manganese imports rose 120% in the seven months to 912,507 tonnes and 2.5-fold to $463.509 million. Most of it was imported from Ghana (440,608 tonnes) and Australia (230,715 tonnes). Ukraine itself produced 846,500 tonnes of concentrate, up 110% year-on-year, in January-July.