Evraz sees fall in crude steel and coal production

Evraz reported a 3.4% decrease in consolidated crude steel output quarter-on-quarter on Friday, which it said was primarily due to lower production volumes at Evraz ZSMK amid scheduled capital repairs.

The FTSE 100 company said production was also impacted by reduced output at its US and Canadian mills, following scheduled downtimes and by weaker demand.

Total steel product sales remained flat quarter-on-quarter, the board said, with sales of semi-finished products increasing by 5.6% quarter-on-quarter, due to better market conditions.

That, the board said, was partly offset by a 3.1% quarter-on-quarter drop in finished products, due to lower sales of flat-rolled products thanks to decreased production at Evraz Palini e Bertoli as well as weaker demand from service centres at North America, and railway products with capital repairs at Evraz ZSMK and Evraz NTMK.

It said production of raw coking coal decreased by 9.7% quarter-on-quarter, mainly following the board’s decision to reduce production at the Razrez Raspadsky open-pit as a response to substantial accumulated stockpiles of raw coal.

“External sales volumes of coking coal products remained flat quarter-on-quarter,” the Evraz board said in its statement.

“External sales of iron ore products descended by 73 kt - or 31.1% - quarter-on-quarter, as production volumes of pellets were down amid capital repairs at Evraz KGOK's roasting machine no. 2.”

The company said sales of final vanadium products rose by 9.8% quarter-on-quarter, mainly due to increased demand in China.

“This was a result of robust infrastructure sector development, as well as ferrovanadium re-stocking in the rest of the world due to lower prices.”

As at 0936 GMT, shares in Evraz were down 0.74% at 364.5p.