OREANDA-NEWS. PAO Severstal announces its operational results for Q3 2015 and 9M 2015.

Iron ore concentrate Severstal Resources sales volumes increased 5% q/q to 1.13 mln tonnes (Q2 2015: 1.07 mln tonnes) mainly driven by an increase in external sales as profitability at Olkon was supported by RUB devaluation.

Iron ore pellets sales increased 5% q/q to 2.73 mln tonnes (Q2 2015: 2.60 mln tonnes) reflecting both higher internal procurement and seasonally higher external sales on the domestic market.

Coking coal concentrate sales volumes remained largely flat q/q at 1.46 mln tonnes (Q2 2015: 1.46 mln tonnes) despite a declined ROM-coal output q/q, which was driven by scheduled long-wall repositioning at the several mines at Vorkutaugol during the period. In 2015, Vorkutaugol will commission 5 new coalfaces across all of its mines.

Steam coal sales at Vorkutaugol increased 37% q/q on the back of improved demand from domestic consumers prior to the heating season.

Against a 6% q/q decline of the global iron ore benchmark in Q3, average selling prices of iron ore pellets at Karelsky Okatysh and iron ore concentrate at Olkon decreased 13% and 14%, respectively. This was largely driven by a ca. 20% q/q RUB devaluation against the USD during the period, which was partially offset by RUB-denominated price increases.

Average coking coal concentrate selling prices decreased 30% q/q, which was a function of the weaker RUB q/q as well as a downwards revision of coking coal contract prices starting from July 2015. Moreover, there has been an increase in the share of semi-soft coking coal within the sales mix.