Russia-based Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) has announced that in the first half of the current year its subsidiary Serov Steel Works increased its revenues by 1.5 times compared to the same period last year to Ruble 4.96 billion ($163 million), in line with a 40 percent year-on-year growth in its steel product output.
However, due to exchange rate changes, bank interests and rising coke prices, Serov Steel Works completed the first half of 2010 with a net loss of Ruble 152 million (about $5 million), which is 7.3 times lower than the loss recorded in the same period of 2009.
Serov Steel Works noted that by the end of H1 2010 scrap prices had increased by 16 percent compared with the beginning of the year, coke prices had doubled, natural gas prices had risen by 12 percent, electricity prices had increased by 11 percent, while railway transport costs had climbed up by 8.5 percent.