EVRAZ sees Q1 production increase across the board

Global mining giant EVRAZ said on Thursday that production volumes of steel, coking coal, iron ore and vanadium all increased during the first three months of the year.

Shares were up 1.01% at 160.1p in early trading.

Crude steel production and output of steel products (net of re-rolled) both increased by around 11% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year as a result of lower downtime at its facilities.

Volumes were also helped by the resumption of operations at the Vitkovice steelmaking shop in the Czech Republic, which was temporarily suspended in the fourth quarter.

However, crude steel production and output of steel products (net of re-rolled) were down 6.0% and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively.

Raw coking coal production increased by 8.7% during the first quarter, up 29.5% year-on-year.

Production of iron ore products rose 1.4% over the first three months but were flat against the first quarter of 2012.

Primary vanadium volumes (vanadium in slag) increased by 3.9% quarter-on-quarter, down 11% on the year.

BC