Interfax reported that Ukraine-based Poltava GOK, the core asset of the London listed Ferrexpo plc, boosted commercial pellet production from internal and purchased feedstock by 20.3% YoY in January to April to 3.16 million tons as demand for the commodity soared.
Ferrexpo said Poltava GOK produced 1.628 million tons of pellets with Fe content of 62% from internal and purchased feedstock, up by 24.4% YoY and 1.533 million tons of Fe-65%, up by 16.2% YoY. Pellet production from internal feedstock rose by 18.7% to 1.553 million tons for Fe-62% and by 2.3% to 1.35 million tons for Fe-65%. Overall pellet production from internal feedstock grew by 10.4% in the four months to 2.903 million tons.
In April alone, Poltava GOK produced 741,000 tons of pellets from internal feedstock down by 0.6% YoY. This included 381,000 tons of Fe-62%, down by 5.4% and 359,000 tons of Fe-65%, up by 5%. It produced 81,000 tons of pellets from purchased feedstock in April, compared with zero in the same month of last year but 98,000 tons in March this year. Overall pellet production in April rose by 10.3% YoY to 822,000 tons.
Crude iron ore production rose by 10.5% YoY in the four months to 9.55 million tons and iron ore concentrate production grew by 13.3% to 3.61 million tons.
In April alone, Poltava GOK produced 2.34 million tons of ore, down by 4.3% from the same month last year and 920,000 tons of concentrate, up by 1.9%.
Ferrexpo exports most of its pellets to Austria, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and other European countries as well as China. (Interfax)