The Russian steelmaker MMK Group has released its operational results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2018.
Accordingly, in the fourth quarter last year, the company recorded a 7.8 percent decline in its crude steel output to 3.11 million mt and a 2.4 percent decline in its pig iron output to 2.56 million mt, both compared to the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter, MMK’s finished steel production totaled 2.81 million mt, down 6.5 percent from the third quarter.
Meanwhile, in 2018, MMK's crude steel production amounted to 12.66 million mt, down by 1.5 percent, while the company’s pig iron output decreased by three percent to 9.86 million mt, both year on year. In 2018, MMK’s finished steel production amounted to 2.38 million mt, declining by 15.1 percent compared to 2017.
The company’s domestic shipments totaled 2.19 million mt in the fourth quarter last year, down 6.5 percent quarter on quarter, while amounting to 9.02 million mt in the full year, up 5.9 percent year on year. The company’s exports, on the other hand, totaled 625,000 mt in the fourth quarter, down 6.4 percent compared to the third quarter of the year, while reaching 2.38 million mt in 2018, down by 15.1 percent compared to 2017.
MMK expects that sales of finished products in the first quarter of 2019 will remain under pressure from weak seasonal demand amid low sales prices in global markets.
The company said that it will offset these factors by a higher share of domestic sales in the first quarter of 2019, thanks to rising demand as a result of lower supply of flat steel by some steel producers, and 100 percent capacity utilization by a number of high-margin production assets, including Mill 5000.