In early March, Torex Group’s subsidiary Amurstal, a Far East Russian EAF-based steel producer with a capacity of about 1 million mt per year, restarted crude steel production following a stoppage as of February 19 due to a scrap shortage.
In January, the steelmaker produced about 40,000 mt of steel, much lower than 58,000 mt in December 2019. But in February the output will be even lower due to two weeks of stoppage. “In March, we need to reach production of at least 50,000-60,000 mt. At first, we need to restore operational volumes, achieved in 2019 [70,000-80,000 mt per month],” said Sergey Kuznetsov, former CEO, who currently proposes to assume the position of chief of production after the mill’s ownership changes.
Amurstal usually sells about 50,000 mt of billet to the Asian market per month when there is no production disruptions. This week, new offers for billet originating from Amurstal have been heard at $420-425/mt CFR Manila, SteelOrbis has learned.
