Russian steelmaker Severstal has announced its operational results for the first quarter of the current year. Accordingly, Severstal's crude steel production in the first quarter decreased by two percent to 2.86 million mt compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year.
In the first quarter, Severstal's total consolidated steel product sales declined by nine percent quarter on quarter to 2.53 million mt. During the first quarter, following the record sales volumes achieved in the previous quarter, the company replenished inventories to normal levels and accumulated finished product stocks for subsequent sales during this year, while it also increased its export sales in response to weaker domestic demand and lower activity from local traders.
In the first quarter this year, Severstal's Russian Steel division produced 320,186 mt of cold rolled coil registering a 14 percent quarter-on-quarter increase, following completion of the refurbishment of the four-stand cold rolling mill at CherMK in 2016.
In the given quarter, Russian Steel division’s sales volume of large diameter (LD) pipes rose by eight percent quarter on quarter to 68,367 mt, driven by higher LD pipe sales from its Izhora Pipe Mill for projects of Gazprom, one of Russia's main oil and gas companies.
In the same period of this year, Severstal's iron ore pellet sales declined by eight percent to 2.58 million mt, while its iron ore concentrate sales volumes fell by 13 percent to 802,939 mt, both on quarter-on-quarter basis. Total coal sales volumes of the company decreased by eight percent from the previous quarter to 1.17 million mt.