OREANDA-NEWS.OJSC MMK has announced its production results for the 3 rd Quarter and 9 months of 2007. According to the Company's press service, due to the repairs and upgrading of the blast furnaces, including BF  6 (installation of a bell-less charging device) the production level for the 9 months of 2007 was lower than in the same period of 2006.Thanks to the ramp-up of EAF steel making 2007 is seeing a steady increase of the crude steel and steel products output. The faster growth of steel making compared to MMK's rolling capacity has led to a surplus of commercial slabs.

Currently MMK is implementing a greenfield project of building a 1.5 mtpy, 5,000 mm plate mill and continuing modernization of the existing 2,000 and 2,500 mm hot rolling mills aimed at improving quality, broadening the product mix  and building up rolling capacity. When completed, these projects will allow to fully process all the slabs produced at MMK.Output of long products in the 9 months of 2007 has been stepped up against the same period of last year thanks to achieving the design capacity at all the long products mills.The lower output of flat and long products in the 3rd Q of 2007 compared to the 2nd Q is attributable to the scheduled maintenance of the production equipment.
  
Prices have been calculated by dividing sales proceeds by sales  quantities. This method does not take into account the differentiation  of products by quality grades and sales markets, therefore the price levels should be viewed as indicative.

In 2006, the Company produced 12.5 m tonnes of crude steel and 11.3 m tonnes of commercial products. Company's sales under US GAAP amounted to USD 6.4 bn, with net profit standing at USD 1.4 bn.