Major Russian steelmakers’ rolled product exports down 11.5% in October

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Russian steelmakers are targeting the domestic market, where demand is relatively strong compared with the weak demand in export destinations.

Domestic sales in Russia are also more profitable, as it is materials with higher added value that sell in the home market. Exports largely consist of semi-finished and lower value added steels.

Russian Steel, a not-for-profit partnership of steel producers, collects production and sales data from member companies including Evraz, Novolipetsk Steel, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel, Mechel and Metalloinvest.

September export volumes for the major steelmakers were down by 4.5% compared with the previous month, Russian Steel said.

But total exports for the first ten months of 2012 stood at 20.09 million tonnes, up by 8% year-on-year.

The steelmakers sold 2.63 million tonnes of rolled products on the domestic market in October, up by 2% year-on-year but down by 5% month-on-month, Russian Steel said.

Total domestic sales for the first ten months of the year were 26.6 million tonnes, up by 1.5% year-on-year.

And total production stood at 4.5 million tonnes of rolled steel in October, down by 4% year-on-year, and by 5% month-on-month.

Steel product output for the first ten months of the year was up by 4% to 46.69 million tonnes.

Russian Steel has revised downwards its September projections for total steel production by 3%, to 4.73 million tonnes. It expects total domestic sales to go down by 5% to 2.77 million tonnes and total export sales by 1% to 1.96 million tonnes.