The Russian steelmaker MMK Group has released its operational results for the third quarter and the first nine months of the current year.
Accordingly, in the third quarter, the company recorded an 11.5 percent growth in its crude steel output to 3.37 million mt and a 15.2 percent increase in its pig iron output to 2.62 million mt, both compared to the previous quarter. In the third quarter, MMK’s finished steel shipments totaled 3 million mt, up 8.9 percent from the second quarter.
Meanwhile, in the first nine months, MMK's crude steel production amounted to 9.55 million mt, slightly down by 0.2 percent, while the company’s pig iron output decreased by 2.8 percent to 7.3 million mt, both year on year. In the January-September period of this year, MMK’s finished steel shipments amounted to 8.6 million mt, up 0.6 percent compared to the same period of 2017.
MMK expects that sales volumes and prices in the last quarter of the current year will be affected by the seasonal decline in business activity in the domestic market and the ongoing correction in global steel prices.
The company said that it will offset these factors by higher operational efficiency following the completion of all scheduled maintenance work and by the lower cost of sales for steel production.