Mechel has Increased Steel Output by 19% in Q1 of 2007

As reported in the press release of the company, in the first quarter of 2007 Mechel produced 930 thousand tons of pig iron, which is 13% more as compared to the same period of 2006; steel - 1.488 mln tons (+ 9% to Q1, 2006), rolled products - 1,274 mln tons (+ 19%), including flat products - 112 thousand tons (+ 28%), long products - 756 thousand tons (+ 35%), semi-finished products - 406 thousand tons (- 4%).

In January - March 2007 4.54 mln tons of coal were mined (+ 13%), including coking coal - 2.223 mln tons (same as in Q1, 2006), steam coal - 2.320 mln tons (+ 30%).

In the first quarter of 2007 output of iron ore concentrate equaled to 1.095 mln tons (- 3%), nickel - 4.1 thousand tons (+ 22%), coke - 959 thousand tons (+ 82%). Considerable growth in coke production was achieved due to the acquisition of the Moscow Coke and Gas Plant, as well as commissioning of a new coking battery at Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works last year.

Alexey Ivanushkin, Mechel’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: «We continued to scale up our production of nickel given the unprecedented growth in prices for nonferrous metals. In the steel segment, positive results were largely due to the company’s progress in increasing the share of concasted steel while reducing costs by decreasing the amount of materials consumed in flat steel production. We recently commissioned two concasters at our Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant and our Romanian plant, Mechel Targoviste. We also continued to increase production output of higher-value end products such as long and flat  products as well as hardware, while reducing the production of semi-finished products. In stampings production, we concentrated on the production from high-end quality steel, which brought about a slight decrease in production volumes of plain stampings. To achieve this production, we increased output of specialty steel forgings at our Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant.