Crude steel output falls at Evraz

Evraz said its consolidated crude steel output fell by 9.5% quarter-on-quarter to 3.3 million tonnes in the second quarter, primarily due to planned capital repairs at EVRAZ ZSMK's oxygen steelmaking converter no. 5 and blast furnace no. 2, as well as planned capital repairs at EVRAZ DMZ's oxygen-converter plant.

The FTSE 250 company said in its production report for the period that production of steel products, net of re-rolled volumes, decreased by 8.0% quarter-on-quarter to 3.0 million tonnes as a result of reduced output of semi-finished products amid planned capital repairs at EVRAZ ZSMK.

It said the share of finished steel products in consolidated volumes rose to 63.8% in the quarter, up from 55.6% in the first quarter, due to lower output of semi-finished products in Russia and Ukraine.

“Production of construction products increased by 10.5% quarter-on-quarter, as demand for construction products improved with the beginning of construction season,” its board said in its statement.

Evraz said the production of railway products was down 1.9% due to a changed product mix on Russian facilities, which was partially offset by higher output in North America -up 10.1% quarter-on-quarter - due to marginally increased demand for rails driven by Class I railroads finalised destocking.

“Output of flat products rose by 8.4% quarter-on-quarter, mostly following planned maintenance outage at EVRAZ Palini e Bertoli in Q1 2017 as well as due to strengthening demand in North America,” the board added.

“Consolidated raw coking coal output increased by 7.9% following a planned longwall repositioning at the Raspadskaya mine in Q1 2017.

“In addition, open-pit mining operations were started at the site of the Raspadskaya-Koksovaya mine to produce deficit OS (semi-hard) coking coal grade.”