OREANDA-NEWS. MMK's raw materials segment (Belon) announces its operational results for Q1 2016

Volumes of coking coal production in Q1 2016 decreased by 20.9% q-o-q, to 808 thousand tonnes.

This was mainly due to a high level of stocks at the company's warehouses which were accumulated in the period of scheduled maintenance of blast furnace No 9 and lower pig iron production.

Coking coal concentrate production remained flat q-o-q. The decline in coking coal production was compensated by: 1) a decrease in mined coal stocks, 2) an increase in the coal quality due to commissioning of new faces in 2015 and 3) an increase in coal purchases from third parties to meet MMK requirements to quality of the final concentrate grades.