Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), one of Russia’s largest iron and steel producers, posted an IFRS net profit of $14 million in the first quarter of 2012, up from a $67 million net loss in the previous quarter, the firm said in a statement on Friday.
MMK’s January-March 2012 EBITDA jumped 44 percent year-on-year to $293 million with revenue growing eight percent year-on-year to $2.425 billion mainly due to “higher sales volumes in the quarter and a recovery in prices for finished products during the first quarter.”
The company’s crude steel output increased 10 percent quarter-on-quarter to 3.4 million tons with the total output of high value-added products increasing by 17 percent to 1,199 tons.
“Production of finished steel products in the second quarter of 2012 in Magnitogorsk will remain at about the same level as in the first [three months of 2012]. Average prices since the beginning of 2012 rose by 6-7 percent. At present prices are experiencing a correction, which is expected to continue into the middle of the third quarter,” MMK said.