26th Apr 2018 09:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Evraz PLC on Thursday said its crude steel sales fell in the first quarter of 2018, hit by lower production at Russian and Ukrainian steel mills.
The mining company said total crude steel production dropped 8.7% to 3.4 million tonnes for the three months to the end of March from 3.7 million for the same period a year earlier. This led to the decline in total sales of steel products to 3.2 million tonnes from 3.5 million tonnes.
Evraz said pig iron output at its Russian and Ukrainian mills fell 8.3% to 2.6 million tonnes from 2.8 million tonnes the prior year, mainly a result of a limitation of iron ore supplies, the company said, because of severe weather conditions in January and February.
Crude steel output declined quarter-on-quarter by 6.9% to 2.9 million tonnes from 3.1 million tonnes following a reduction in pig iron output. Consolidated output of vanadium slag also dropped 8.1% to 4.0 million tonnes from 4.4 million tonnes.
The company said its external sales of steel products fell 7.1% to 2.7 million tonnes from 2.9 million tonnes, due to lower crude steel production volumes.
The average steel product price stood at USD544.00 per tonne, up from USD435.00 in the first quarter of 2017.
Sales of railway products were also down 12% to 308,000 tonnes from 351,000 following the changes in the product mix and lower demand from Russian railways in January and February.
In contrast, crude steel production in North America grew 4.9% to 473,000 tonnes in the period from 452,000 tonnes the year before, driven by an improved rail, rod, and bar order book at the Evraz Pueblo mill.
Railway product sales also climbed 21% to 98,000 tonnes from 81,000 tonnes, helped by improved demand and downtime for the holidays in the final quarter of 2017.
Production in Evraz's coal segment rose 6.7% to 6.0 million tonnes in the first quarter compared with 5.6 million tonnes produced in the comparative period the prior year. The growth was driven by scheduled longwall repositioning at the Alardinskaya and Uskovskaya mines in Russia during the fourth quarter of 2017.
However, output of coking coal concentrate was almost flat year-on-year at 3.6 million tonnes.
External sales volumes of raw coking coal dropped dramatically by 78%, Evraz said, amid "unusually" high sales of raw coking coal in the last quarter of 2017, while coking coal concentrate sales volumes grew 9.8% to 2.6 million tonnes from 2.4 million tonnes.
Average selling prices for raw coking coal and coking coal concentrate declined year-on-year to USD75.00 per tonne from USD89.00 and to USD135.00 per tonne from USD155.00, respectively.
Looking ahead, Evraz said it estimates pig iron production in Russia and Ukraine to increase by about 9.0% in the second quarter with an absence of major repairs, while in North America, the company anticipates slightly higher crude steel output.
Regarding raw coal production, Evraz said it expects a slight decrease during the second quarter as it is in the process of scheduled longwall repositioning.
Evraz shares were up 0.4% Thursday at 423.10 pence each.
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