Swiss-headquartered miner Ferrexpo, whose main interests are in Ukrainian iron ore assets, has announced its production results for the first quarter this year, while indicating that its operations continued to operate with minimal impact from the coronavirus during the given quarter.
In the January-March period this year, the company’s iron ore production increased by two percent year on year to 2.78 million mt. In particular, the company’s output of pellets from iron ore with 65 percent Fe content totaled 2.68 million mt, up one percent year on year and down 12 percent compared to the fourth quarter last year, reflecting ongoing pelletizer upgrade work. Upgrade work was completed on one pelletizer line in the first quarter this year and further work is underway in the second quarter. The company expects overall pelletizer capacity to increase by 500,000-1 million mt per year following completion of this work.
The company also recorded additional production of 65,000 mt of high-grade concentrate for sale in the first quarter, linked to the commissioning and ramp-up of its concentrate stockyard project.