OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2012. EVRAZ plc (LSE: EVR) (“EVRAZ” or the “Company”) today issued its first interim management statement for 2012 in accordance with DTR 4.3. Compared to the previous interim management statements issued by the Company, the format of this statement has been aligned to meet the requirements of the DTR 4.3 and to reflect existing practices of equivalent premium listed companies. Going forward EVRAZ plans to issue interim management statements on or around 15 April and 15 October each year along the operational results of the first and the third quarters respectively.

Each year EVRAZ publishes consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS for the six months ended June 30 and for the year ended December 31.

Overview (1):
Total steel product sales for the first quarter of 2012 amounted to 3.9 million tonnes, unchanged from Q1 2011.
Revenue for the first quarter of 2012 remained in line with the same period in 2011 as prices and sales volumes were broadly flat.
 The Company’s cost base increased due to the appreciation of the Russian Rouble.
The Q1 2012 financial performance was broadly in line with the Q4 2011 performance.
Total debt as of 31 March 2012 amounted to USD 7,383 million (USD 7,245 million as of 31 December 2011), including current portion of USD 1,052 million (USD 626 million as of 31 December 2011). The increase in total debt is mainly attributable to the Russian Rouble appreciation in Q1 2012 which gave a USD 228 million effect.
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period stood at USD 453 million (USD 801 million as of 31 December 2011), mainly due to an increase in working capital which is expected to be reversed by the end of Q2 2012.
Capital expenditure amounted to USD 310 million during the first quarter of 2012. On the whole, major capex projects (introduction of the PCI technology at the Russian steel mills, reconstruction of the rail mill at EVRAZ ZSMK, greenfield construction of two rolling mills in the CIS, development of the Yerunakovskaya VIII coking coal mine) remain on schedule and within budget.
The Company is in the process of carrying out the following planned repairs and upgrades at certain assets that are expected to impact production volumes in Q2 2012:
 - Capital repairs at EVRAZ Russian steel mills’ blast furnaces: 17 days to BF 5 at EVRAZ NTMK (annual production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of pig iron) in April and 12 days of BF 3 to EVRAZ ZSMK (2.2 mtpa) in June.
 - Shutdown for the final stage of the upgrade of the EVRAZ ZSMK rail mill that started in April and is expected to continue for five months. The upgrade will increase the mill’s rail production capacity from 720,000 tonnes to 950,000 tonnes, including up to 450,000 tonnes of high speed 100-metre rails.
 - Shutdown for the related upgrade of one of the two continuous casters at EVRAZ ZSMK (its capacity is expected to increase from 725,000 tonnes to 1 million tonnes of billets per annum) and a temporary shutdown of one of the two electric arc furnaces with an annual steelmaking capacity of 860,000 tonnes.
In April 2012 Evraz Group S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of EVRAZ plc, issued USD 600 million five year notes at a coupon rate of 7.40% per annum.
EVRAZ is due to release its interim results for the first six months of 2012 on 30 August 2012.
EVRAZ will hold an Investor Day on 19 June 2012.


Financial Position:

 EVRAZ has substantial financial headroom to support its operations and investment plans.
 There have been no exceptional material events or transactions during the period and there have been no significant changes in the financial position of the Company since the publication of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2011.

(1)The Q1 2012 production results as well as prices for major product groups were published on 16 April 2012 and are available on the Company’s website.