OREANDA-NEWS. According to preliminary estimates, in January-April 2007, Poltava mining-concentrating plant (PGOK, Komsomolsk, Poltava region) has increased manufacture of commodity pellets by 29 % - up to 3,154 million tons, iron ore concentrate - by 22 % up to 3,484 million tons in comparison with analogous period of 2006.

In April PGOK produced 825 thousand tons of pellets and 859 thousand tons of iron ore concentrate.

The enterprise basically exports production, realizing its insignificant part in the home market. So, in April 76,5 thousand tons of pellets at the plan 178 thousand tons were sold in the home market. At the same time, 11,5 thousand tons have been delivered to Dnepropetrovsk Metal Works after Petrovsky (DMZ) (the plan - 11 thousand tons), 35,1 thousand tons - “Zaporozhstal” (0) and 29,9 thousand tons – Kranatorski Metal Works (25 thousand tons).

At the same time, PGOK did not ship production to Dneprovski Metal Works after Dzerzhinski (the plan - 50 thousand tons) and “Mittal Steel Krivoi Rog” (92 thousand tons).

For four months of this year PGOK sold 609,9 thousand tons of pellets in the home market at the plan of 718 thousand tons.

In 2006, PGOK increased manufacture of commodity pellets by 10,2 % - up to 8,550 million tons in comparison with 2005, iron ore concentrate - by 15,7 % up to 9,621 million tons.

On results of 2006 the enterprise increased deliveries of pellets to China where approximately 10 % of volumes of shipped production are delivered. Growth of sales of PGOK has begun in the home market from the second half of the year.

Basic shareholder of PGOK - the company Ferrexpo A.G. (Switzerland) - has concluded the three-year contract with Fujian San Steel (China) in the middle of 2006.

PGOK, the largest manufacturer of iron ore pellets in Ukraine, specializes on extraction of iron ore by open-pit way. The basic consumers of its production are the companies from Austria, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Italy.