Mechel Reports the 9M 2018 Financial Results

Mechel PAO (MOEX: MTLR, NYSE: MTL), a leadingRussian mining and steel group, announces financial results for the 9M 2018.

Mechel PAO’s Chief Executive Officer Oleg Korzhov commented:
“The Group’s nine months 2018 financial result from operating activities demonstrated a small growth year-on-year. The third quarter turned out weaker than the previous one.

“The key factors that impacted the dynamics of our results were the necessary planned repairs at our steelmaking facilities that have been put off in earlier periods due to lack of financing, as well as transport limitations due to railway car shortages. As the markets were favorable, this did not have a major impact on our revenue, but did increase operation costs and as such, brought down EBITDA and profitability.

“Later this year and next year we still have several major repairs ahead of us, necessary for increasing production and further expansion of our product range. In this reporting period, our steelmaking experts mastered and earned certificates for production of rails for speed railways, as well as mastered manufacturing of conductor rails for underground railway systems. We are also working on boosting production of stainless flats, which are much in demand.

“The mining division demonstrated stable levels of coal mining and a growth in iron ore concentrate production at Korshunov Mining Plant. Stripping volumes also demonstrated a marked increase throughout the division. Sales went down due to railcar shortages, coal was partly stored and will be sold in future periods. At the same time, coking coal concentrate sales to third parties demonstrated positive dynamics quarter-on-quarter. The decrease in shipments by third-party railcars was partially compensated by the growth in shipping using our own rolling stock. Later this year and next year we plan to expand our own railcar fleet to reduce our dependency on third-party operators.

“On a separate note, we have reached progress in restructuring our debt by refinancing our 1-billion-dollar pre-export syndicated loan. The unrestructured share of our debt portfolio is down to 9%. We continue working on restructuring the remainder of our loans and expect to complete this process next year.”