Russia 100715 Basic Political Developments

Interfax: Evraz boosts steel production 26% to 4.3 mln tonnes in Q2

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=177352

MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax) - Evraz Group produced 4.282 million tonnes of steel in the second quarter of 2010, 25.8% more than in the same period last year.

Evraz produced 3.4 million tonnes of steel in the second quarter of 2009 and 4 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2010.

Output of rolled products rose 14.6% year-on-year to 3.736 million tonnes.

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Reuters: Evraz says Q2 crude steel production up 25.8 pct

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE66E0BK20100715
Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:15am GMT

The company, part owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, reported the figure in a statement on Thursday, adding that quarter-on-quarter output was up 7.1 percent.

Evraz said in May it expected core earnings to nearly double in Q2 due to rising prices. [ID:nLDE64G1RW]

(Writing by John Bowker)

Bloomberg: Magnitogorsk First-Half Steel-Products Output Increases 32%

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-15/magnitogorsk-first-half-steel-products-output-increases-32-.html
July 15, 2010, 1:52 AM EDT

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel, owner of Russia’s largest steel mill, increased production of steel products in the first half 32 percent compared with the same period last year to 5 million tons, Chief Financial Officer Oleg Fedonin told reporters today.

The company plans to spend $300 million over the next two years developing its coal assets, Fedonin said in Magnitogorsk, the Ural Mountains city where the steelmaker is based.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brad Cook at [e-mail]

Reuters: Russian UMMC to finish 2nd copper refinery in Q4 2011

http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFLDE66E08K20100715
Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:32am GMT

YEKATERINBURG Russia, July 15 (Reuters) - Russia's No.2 copper producer, Urals Mining and Metals Co (UMMC) plans to finish building its second refinery in the fourth quarter of 2011, UMMC's Chief Executive Andrei Kozitsyn said on Thursday.

Last year, UMMC said it had decided to postpone until 2012-2014 its plan to build the refinery, which would increase the firm's capacity by 37 percent to 500,000 tonnes per year. It had earlier planned to increase capacity by 2010.

Kozitsyn told Reuters UMMC planned to raise cathode copper output in 2010 by 20 percent from 2009 to 370,000 tonnes, in line with its earlier target of 356,918 tonnes. [ID:nLDE62315F]

Privately owned UMMC estimates its investments for 2010 at $1.6 billion, 70 percent of which will be channelled to develop copper and other metals deposits in the Urals and in Siberia. (Reporting by Natalya Shurmina, writing by Aleksandras Budrys)

RIA: Leading Russian coal company to invest up to $700 mln on development, railway

http://en.rian.ru/business/20100715/159820723.html
11:44 15/07/2010

MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's leading mining company Mechel intends to spend $650-700 million on the development of a giant coal field in the Republic of Yakutia in northeast Russia by the end of this year, a company senior executive said on Thursday.

"This year we expect to invest $650-700 million in the development of the Elginskoye deposit, with the larger part of the funds to be spent on the construction of a railway," Mechel Senior Vice-President for Finances Stanislav Ploshchenko said during a conference call.

Mechel, which holds the license to develop the giant Elginskoye coal deposit with estimated reserves of 2.1 billion metric tons of coking coal, intends to put it into commercial operation in November this year.

The coal from the deposit is expected to be shipped through the port of Vanino in the Russian Far East to Asia-Pacific countries.
Steel Guru: Cost for Raspadskaya recovery an estimated RUB 9 billion

http://www.steelguru.com/raw_material_news/Cost_for_Raspadskaya_recovery_an_estimated_RUB_9_billion/155335.html

Thursday, 15 Jul 2010

Interfax reported that the price tag for the recovery of the Raspadskaya coal mine is tentatively put at RUB 8.6 billion.

That figure is based on the company's plan for redressing the aftermath of the deadly methane mine blasts that left scores dead.

According to the protocol for a meeting with Mr Vladimir Putin Russian Prime Minister on June 24th, there will be discussion of allocating federal budget monies for building a scheme of grids for the external supply of electricity to the town of Mezhdurechensk and Raspadskaya.

The company is currently taking operational measures to increase output at its other enterprises with the aim of offsetting volume because of the disaster. It is mining and shipping K coal from the mine CJSC Koksovaya, acquired this past April.

(Sourced from Interfax)

Moscow Times: Raspadskaya Says Mine Repairs to Cost Less

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/raspadskaya-says-mine-repairs-to-cost-less/410412.html
15 July 2010

By Scott Rose

Costs to repair Raspadskaya's largest mine after fatal explosions earlier this year will likely reach 8.6 billion rubles ($281 million), the coal producer said Wednesday, scaling back a higher estimate from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The sum includes expenses for social payments, extinguishing the fire, pumping water from the mine, and bringing the shaft back into working order, Raspadskaya said in a statement.

Production of coking coal, which is used in steelmaking, fell 42 percent in the second quarter compared with the preceding three months because all production is still halted at the damaged mine, the company said in a separate statement.

Raspadskaya's shares finished up 1 percent in Moscow, outperforming the benchmark MICEX Index, which closed down 0.7 percent.

Twin blasts ripped through Russia's largest underground mine on the night of May 9, killing 90 workers and rescuers, some of whom are still officially listed as missing. Restoring the mine, which employed about 4,000 people, could take 12 to 15 months, according to Energy Ministry estimates.

Putin traveled to the Kemerovo region mine on June 24 to discuss recovery efforts. He estimated that it would cost 10 billion rubles to restore the damaged mine, up from earlier estimates of 6 billion rubles.

The federal government could assist if needed, he said, but shareholders will have to bear the majority of the costs. Evraz Group and company management evenly own about 80 percent of Raspadskaya, Russia's largest producer of coking coal.

Separately, Russia's industrial safety watchdog said Wednesday that it would submit its preliminary report on the causes of the accident to the government on Friday.

"The reasons are clear — they were organizational shortcomings," said Nikolai Kutin, director of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Atomic Inspection, Interfax reported.

The service's findings are still preliminary because it has not been able to investigate the site of the explosions, he said.