NLMK reports rise in Q2 production

Russian integrated steel and mining company Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced its production results for the second quarter of 2006 today. As far as the results of the steel division are concerned, NLMK's production of pig iron rose 21 percent, that of crude steel rose 21.37 percent, that of slabs rose 68.16 percent, that of CR steel rose 19.81 percent, that of HDG rose 39.19 percent and that of steel with polymeric coating rose 33.3 percent year on year to 2.3 million tons, to 2.3 million tons, to 977,000 tons, to 641,000 tons, to 103,000 tons and to 103,000 tons respectively in the second quarter of 2006. However, the production of HR steel decreased by 33.89 percent to 355,000 tons during the given period. In mining sector, NLMK increased the production of concentrate by 20.83 percent to 3.28 million tons, but decreased the production of sintering ore by 1.04 percent during the period under the consideration. As commented at the enterprise, NLMK was able to raise the output of majority of its products due to renovation works which were done in the middle of 2005 at the plant. The rise of production of iron ore in the second quarter of 2006 was mainly achieved due to the consolidation of KMAruda in March of 2006.