Russian Steel members raise December exports

Members of producers association Russian Steel exported 2.34mn t of products in December. Shipments were up by almost 19pc from November and 7pc higher than a year earlier, and represented almost half of their production.

Exports for the whole year by Russian Steel members increased by over 7pc to 25mn t, including 13.2mn t of semi-finished products.

Members of the association, which produce 90pc of all Russian steel, produced 4.71mn t steel products last month, up by almost 4pc from November, but down by over 4pc from a year earlier. Their output totalled 56.57mn t last year, down by 0.6pc compared with 2014.

Domestic pipe shipments by Russian Steel members fell by nearly 6pc to 31.54mn t last year.

The association members' steel pipe output — about 60pc of the Russian total — reached 563,000t in December, up by 3pc from the previous month, but down by almost 5pc against December 2014. Full-year pipe output of 6.67mn t was 8pc higher, mainly because of higher demand for large diameter pipes.

Domestic steel pipe shipments increased by 1.5pc from November to 511,000t last month and by 0.4pc year on year, with January-December shipments rising by almost 16pc to 5.96mn t.

Pipe exports of 52,000t last month were up by over 20pc from November, but nearly 37pc lower than a year earlier. Full-year exports declined by over 31pc to 700,000t, because of higher domestic demand.

Russian Steel members include Evraz, Severstal, MMK, NLMK, Metalloinvest, Mechel, OMK and TMK.