NLMK Group risen sales of higher finished products

In January-September 2015, NLMK Group increased production by 2% y-o-y and sales by 7% y-o-y. Сapacity utilization rates for core steelmaking operations was close to 100%.

9M 2015 highlights:
9M 2015 crude steel output increased to 12.01 million tons (+2% y-o-y), which corresponds to a 94% group capacity utilization rate.
Increased productivity as a result of operational efficiency programmes allowed surpassing last year’s record crude steel output.
Group sales increased to 12.05 million tons (+7% y-o-y) driven by growth of shipments to international markets (+17% y-o-y).

Q3 2015 highlights:
Q3 2015 steelmaking utilization rates of the group were 93% (-1 p.p. q-o-q), including 100% at the Lipetsk site.
Group crude steel output was stable at 4.09 million tons.
Group sales increased to 4.08 million tons (+2% q-o-q) due to higher finished product shipments (2.73 million tons; +6% q-o-q) while semi-finished product sales declined by 5% q-o-q.
Sales to the Russian market went up to 1.73 million tons (+12% q-o-q) on the back of favourable demand for flat steel, which share in total sales increased to 53% (+4 p.p. q-o-q).