Ukraine’s mining and metals company Metinvest group’s crude steel production rose by 6pc, to 5.90mn mt in the Jan-Sep period. The production was 5.59mn mt in the prior year.
The rise in crude steel output was driven by 16pc increase in output at the group’s Ilyich steel company, which produced hot steel and downstream products instead of merchant pig iron after commissioning a continuous casting machine in June.
The group’s Azvostal facility’s share in production of total crude steel was 52pc, down from 57pc in 2018, mainly resulting from fall in hot metal production. Total hot metal production declined by 3pc after two of their blast furnaces shut down. This decline in production was compensated after the launch of more efficient blast furnace in June, according to the company’s preliminary results released on Tuesday.
The output of merchant metal products was 6.70mn mt, of which production of slabs rose by 4pc to 21pc, pig iron dropped by 5pc to 13pc from 2018. Share of finished flat products reached 56pc, up by 2pc from the prior year. Greater output at Ilyich Steel along with the acquisition of Unisteel’s galvanizing facilities with annual production capacity of 1mn mt drove this rise. The shares of long products like pipes and rails were 9pc and 2pc, respectively.
Ukraine’s total steel output rose by 3.9pc to 16.4mn mt in the first nine months of 2019, from the whole of 2018. The country produced 1.6mn mt in Oct 2019 according to the world steel association.