Russian steelmaker Severstal has proceeded with its projects, aiming to increase its efficiency. By the end of 2020, the company will raise the consumption of its own-mined iron ore to 90 percent, which is 13 percent higher than in the previous year and 20 percent higher compared to the level achieved in 2018.
“Such high iron ore market volatility which causes changes in prices of up to 40 percent requires all market players to be flexible and to adopt promptly to any changes in the business environment. The company’s iron ore self-sufficiency has already reached 130 percent. In 2020, we have almost halved the use of third-party raw material and got a considerable effect from it. However, we are not mulling the stoppage of third-party raw material bookings completely, but are taking decisions carefully,” Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal, stated.
Within the scope of development of its affiliated raw material facilities, Severstal has managed to increase the capacity of its iron ore production and to improve its iron ore quality. Accordingly, Yakolevsky GOK is expected to achieve 5 million mt of iron ore output to 2023. Karelsky Okatysh is scheduled to raise its iron ore pellet output to 12 million mt per year. Besides that, Olcon has already increased Fe content in its iron ore concentrate and iron ore pellets to 69 percent and to 66.5 percent, respectively.