OREANDA-NEWS. On April 18, 2007 the Board of Directors of OAO Belon declared final financial and economic results of the Company for 2006, reported the press-centre of OAO Belon.

In 2006, production volume of coal at the enterprises of Belon Group amounted to 3,381 thousand tons, thus exceeding the indices of 2005 by 5,7%. Such volume increase was backed up by commissioning of the new enterprises—the Novaya-2 mine and the Novobachatsky-2 open-pit mine, where exploration works included preproduction coal mining. The production volume of metallurgical coal against the indices of the last year increased by 39% and amounted to 1,724 thousand tons, while the volume of steam coal produced decreased by 15% thus reaching 1,657 thousand tons.

Preparation of coal concentrate was affected by several market factors. The Company’s objective to ensure sustained quality of the concentrate delivered to the customers revealed a necessity to terminate cooperation with some of the suppliers of run-of-mine coal. Decrease in the volume of give-and-take coal preparation was associated with commissioning of the new coal preparation facilities in the Kemerovo region. As a result, the overall volume of metallurgical coal preparation amounted to 4,389 thousand tons.
In 2006, sales of steam coal accounted for 1,616 thousand tons, and coal concentrate delivery volume reached the amount of 2,520 thousand tons.

As for steel trading, sales of steel mill products increased by 6%, as compared to 2005, and reached 282 thousand tons. Sales volume of bricks produced at the Leninsk-Kuznetsky Construction Materials Plant increased by 7%, thus amounting to 34,9 mln. pieces.

In the previous year, the Company focused on development of existing and construction of the new production facilities, as well as on ensuring occupational safety at the enterprises of Belon Group. The total amount of 3,27 billion rubles (over 130 mln. US dollars) was allocated for the said purposes in the course of the year. The investment volume projected for 2007 will be the greatest in the Company’s history: nearly 5 billion rubles (200 mln US dollars).

Bulk of this amount will be spent on implementation of the Company’s major projects meant for increasing capacity of metallurgical and steam coals production and preparation. Due to such increase in the volume of production at the existing facilities, the total production volume will amount to 4,7 mln. rubles.