Ukrainian production in H1

According to the preliminary data released by Ministry of Industrial Policy of Ukraine, the country's production of finished steel products rose 6 percent, that of crude steel rose 4 percent, that of pig iron rose 4 percent, and that of pipes rose 8 percent year on year to 16.82 million tons, to 19.86 million tons, to 15.94 million tons and to 1.21 million tons respectively in the first half year of 2006. On the other hand, during the same period, the production of coke decreased 6 percent and that of ferroalloys decreased 20 percent to 9.24 million tons and to 652,000 tons respectively. Ukrainian production of iron ore rose 3 percent, iron ore concentrate rose 3 percent, that of pellets rose 6 percent year on year to 35.36 million tons, to 27.30 million tons and to 9.59 million tons respectively in January-June of 2006. However, during the period under consideration, the production of manganese ore decreased 46 percent to 546,000 tons and that of agglomerate held on to the level of the same period of last year that is 23.65 million tons.