According to the data released by Rudprom, the Association of Russian
Iron Ore Producers,
Russia,
Ukraine and
Kazakhstan upped joined
iron ore production by 1.9 percent year on year to 79.03 million tons during January-May of 2006.
In particular, Russian
production of
iron ore rose 3.8 percent year on year to 42.18 million tons in the first five months of 2006. During the given period, Russian
production of agglomerate decreased 10.7 percent to 2.2 million tons, the
production of
iron ore concentrate rose 2.9 percent to 40.52 million tons and that of pellets rose 4.4 percent to 15.81 million tons.
Ukrainian
production of
iron ore increased 2 percent year on year to 29.27 million tons in the first five months of 2006.
Kazakh
iron ore producers produced 7.6 million tons of
iron ore in January-May of 2006, which is by 6.9 percent less than during the same period of last year.