The Russian steelmaker MMK Group has released its operational results for the first half of 2019.
Accordingly, in the first half of this year, the company recorded a 0.4 percent rise in its crude steel output to 6.2 million mt and a 3.6 percent growth in its pig iron output to 4.85 million mt, both compared to the same period of the previous year. In the given period, MMK’s finished steel production totaled 5.46 million mt, down 2.3 percent from the first half of 2018.
The company’s domestic shipments totaled 4.88 million mt in the first half this year, up 8.5 percent year on year, while the company’s exports, on the other hand, totaled 575,000 mt in the given quarter, down 47.2 percent compared to the first half of 2018.
In the third quarter, MMK expects that domestic steel demand will remain strong and with the completion of another stage of reconstruction at hot-rolling Mill 2500, this should have a positive impact on the sales volumes of MMK Group. The maximum capacity utilization of high-margin production units and continued high price premium in the domestic market should help offset the higher prices for iron ore in H1 2019, which should support the financial results in the third quarter.