Metinvest increases steel production by 78% in 9 months

Metinvest, the largest Ukrainian vertically integrated steel and mining group, reported on November 11 that it upped steel output to 10.98 million tons in nine months of 2011, equating to a 78% YoY increase.
The primary driver for the latter was the acquisition of the Mariupol Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and its finalized integration with Metinvest, as well as increased output by Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and Yenakievo Iron and Steel Works. Ilyich, with its rolling mills, also made way for product mix improvement in terms of higher volumes of finished steel products and added value from 62% in nine months of 2010 to 77% in nine months of 2011.
Metinvest increased coking coal mining by 11% YoY to 8.4 million tons, which was partly attributed to more intense operations at its US subsidiary.
Metinvest also boosted coke output by 26.7% YoY to 4.4 million tons.
The company maintained production of iron ore concentrate with only a slight reduction in output (-1.3%) to 26.7 million tons in line with its strategic goal to reprocess all iron ore internally. (Phoenix-capital.ua)