CIS iron ore production in January-May

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.