The Ukrainian mining and steel producing group Metinvest has announced that in January-October this year its steel and rolled products division produced about 6.8 million mt of crude steel - up 19.6 percent, 6.4 million mt of semi-finished and finished steel products - up 21.2 percent, and 5.88 million mt of pig iron - up 19 percent, all compared to the same period last year.
In particular, in January-October this year, Metinvest's steelmaking subsidiary Azovstal increased its crude steel output by 26.5 percent to 4.7 million mt, it saw its pig iron production rise by 27 percent to about 4.08 million mt and saw its rolled steel production increase by 28.2 percent to 4.4 million mt, all compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
In addition, in the first ten months of the current year, the pig iron production of Metinvest's Yenakievo Iron and Steel Works rose by 4.2 percent to about 1.81 million mt and its rolled steel output climbed up 8.1 percent to two million mt, both compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, the plant's crude steel production went up by 6.5 percent year on year to 2.1 million mt.
Meanwhile, in October this year, Metinvest saw its crude steel output drop by 8.3 percent month on month to 647,370 mt, mainly due to a 1.4 percent decrease in Azovstal's crude steel produced for the month, caused by off-schedule repair works on its open-hearth furnace No. 8, and due to a 24.2 percent decrease in Yenakievo's crude steel output caused by a number of planned overhauls performed in October on its major metallurgical units.
In October, Metinvest also registered a seven percent drop in its pig iron output to 561,570 mt, and a 2.7 percent decrease in its semi-finished and finished steel product output to 639,480 mt, both compared to September.