KOKS Group posts net loss for H1

Russian pig iron and coking coal company KOKS Group has announced its financial and operating results for the first half of the current year.
 
In the first six months of 2013, KOKS Group registered a net loss of RUB 833 million ($25.2 million), compared to a net profit of RUB 899 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company's sales in the given period decreased by 10 percent year on year to RUB 21.04 billion ($636.6 million), mainly due to a decrease in coke and pig iron prices. On the other hand, KOKS' operating profit was RUB 1.5 billion ($45.4 million), down 38 percent year on year, due to lower revenues and growing transportation costs, which increased by 20 percent on the back of rail tariff inflation.
 
According to KOKS, the downward trend in the coking coal price continued throughout the first half of the current year, while coke prices in the first half decreased year on year due to weaker demand, as a number of Russian consumers who had purchased coke from the open market were shut down.