Raspadskaya Coal Company (Raspadskaya), the second largest coking coal producer in Russia and a subsidiary of domestic steelmaker Evraz Group, has announced its consolidated IFRS financial results for the first half of 2009.
Accordingly, during the period in question Raspadskaya registered net losses of $11 million compared to a net profit of $262 million in the same period last year, having been affected by a foreign exchange loss of $23.6 million.
Meanwhile, the company's revenue in H1 2009 amounted to $148 million - down 76 percent, while its EBITDA in this period came to $63 million - down 85 percent, both compared to the same period last year. In spite of negative market conditions and decreasing prices, Raspadskaya managed to maintain a high EBITDA margin level, of 43 percent, mainly due to one of the lowest production cost levels in the industry within the frame of its internal anti-crisis program. In H1 2009, the company's production cash cost per mt of coal concentrate expressed in rubles declined by 13 percent year on year.
In January-June 2009, Raspadskaya produced 4.2 million mt of raw coal - down four percent year on year, while its sales of coal concentrate totaled three million mt. In Q1 this year, steel demand remained on a low level due to the global industrial production decrease; however, in Q2 the company's sales volumes increased by 30 percent quarter on quarter as a result of a partial recovery in steel and coke-chemical production and rising demand for its products.
"The company is already working at the pre-crisis levels of production and sales of its coal products, and expects significant improvement of its results in the second half of 2009," Raspadskaya CEO Gennady Kozovoy commented.
According to Mr. Kozovoy, the improvement is expected as the recovery of demand and of prices for metallurgical and coke-chemical products will continue, and the company will produce more coal. In addition, the company expects to maintain strict cost control and to diversify its client base and sales markets in accordance with its mid-term strategic program.
Raspadskaya currently operates three mines in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia, while it has another mine under construction in the same region which will have a designed annual capacity of 3 million mt. It supplies coal to steel mills in Russia (MMK, NLMK and Evraz Group), Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Asia.