OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2012. METALLOINVEST, a leading global iron ore and HBI producer based in Russia, announces its operational results for the third quarter of 2012.

In Q3 2012, the Company’s iron ore, pellet and HBI/DRI shipments increased by 5.0% y-o-y and totaled 7.5 mn tonnes.

In Q3 2012, the Company’s iron ore production increased by 0.9% q-o-q to 10.1 mn tonnes, while capacity utilization rate remained stable at the high level.

Production of pellets stayed at the same level of 5.7 mn tonnes (+0.5% q-o-q), whilst HBI/DRI output decreased by 6.5% q-o-q mostly due to the scheduled maintenance work at LGOK’s HBI-1 Plant.

In Q3 2012, hot metal output declined by 16.5% q-o-q to 0.5 mn tonnes due to the scheduled repair work at one of the blast furnaces at Ural Steel. At the same time the Company increased crude steel production by 4.6% q-o-q to 1.4 mn tonnes.

Iron ore shipments increased by 5.3% q-o-q to 3.3 mn tonnes, due to released volumes as a result of the maintenance work carried out at the Company’s plants.

In Q3 2012 the Company decreased HBI/DRI shipments by 13.8% q-o-q, which was accompanied by the increase of pellet shipments to external customers by 2.5% q-o-q.

The Company enhanced its leading position in the domestic iron ore products market with a share of 53.5% or 4.0 mn tonnes shipped in Q3 2012, representing an increase of 5.2% q-o-q.

In Q3 2012, iron ore product shipments to China increased by 7.8% q-o-q to 1.1 mn tonnes.

The Company’s shipments to Eastern Europe decreased by 14.7% q-o-q to 1.2 mn tonnes, which was largely compensated by a 26.4% increase in shipments to Western Europe, which amounted to 0.5 mn tonnes.