CIS iron ore production in H1

According to the data released by Rudprom, the Association of Russian Iron Ore Producers, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan upped joined iron ore production by 3.8 percent year on year to 95.44 million tons in January-June of 2006. In particular, Russian production of iron ore rose 4.8 percent, that of iron ore concentrate rose 3.9 percent and that of pellets rose 5.9 percent year on year to 50.77 million tons, to 48.8 million tons and to 19 million tons respectively in January-June of 2006. On the other hand, the production of agglomerate decreased 11.9 percent to 2.59 million tons during the same period. Ukraine, during the period under the consideration, produced 35.47 million tons of iron ore, up 3.3 percent compared to the same period of last year. Kazakh's production of iron ore increased 0.4 percent to 9.2 million ton during the given period.