Russian mills’ steel sales fall in 2020

Sales from Russian steelmakers mostly declined in 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and despite capacity increases.

Urals-based MMK sold 5pc less steel in 2020, reaching 10.8mn t, of which 4.3mn t was hot-rolled coil (HRC), down by 3.8pc on the year.

This is mainly due to a revamp of the company's hot-rolling mill 2500, which finished in the second quarter, and which saw output in the second half of the year boosted. The latest quarter recorded a 33pc increase in HRC sales on the quarter, underpinned by higher market demand. MMK's 2020 crude steel production fell by 7.1pc to 11.6mn t.

Another Russian producer, Severstal, also reported lower 2020 sales, with the volume down by 4pc to 10.7mn t. Of this amount 4.4mn t was HRC, down by 1pc on the year — in the last quarter HRC sales plummeted by 35pc on the year to 816,000t. Total crude steel output fell by 4pc as well, to 11.3mn t.

Producer NLMK is the only one that recorded a slight increase in production, but only marginally and not enough to counterbalance the falls at MMK and Severstal. Crude steel production edged up by less than 1pc at 15.7mn t.

Similarly, sales of steel products increased by 2.6pc to 17.5mn t. This was underpinned by higher semi-finished sales, while flat steel sales were down by 3.5pc to 8.2mn t. HRC sales were slightly down at 3.7mn t.

Out of the three producers, only MMK has published a vague outlook for the first quarter of 2021, saying that it expects stable demand to support sales.

By Lora Stoyanova