OREANDA-NEWS. PAO Severstal announces its operational results for Q3 2015 and 9M 2015.

Crude steel production increased 2% to 2.89 mln tonnes (Q2 2015: 2.85 mln tonnes), while hot metal output increased 1% to 2.31 mln tonnes (Q2 2015: 2.29 mln tonnes) against the previous quarter, during which steel production was impacted by scheduled maintenance at the BOF#3 and continuous caster #2 and #4.

Severstal's proximity to the border allowed the Company to flexibly relocate sales volumes from export market, with share of domestic deliveries within the sales mix increasing to 67% (Q2 2015: 59%).

Consolidated sales of steel products increased 13% q/q with Severstal's steel assets continuing to run at near to full capacity. Steel consumption in Russia was stronger q/q despite less pronounced seasonality compared with previous years.

Together this enabled the Company to reduce inventory levels and improve its receivables turnover ratio.

The share of high value-added (HVA) products in the sales portfolio remained strong at 47% (Q2 2015: 47%) despite a 16% q/q increase in semi-finished products sales and a 9% q/q increase in hot-rolled coil sales.

Coking coal concentrate sales remained flat q/q in spite of a decrease in ROM-coal output volumes in Q3 at Vorkutaugol on the back of scheduled long-walls repositioning activity during the period.

Global steel prices continued to decline, largely impacted by concerns regarding the prospects of the Chinese economy. However, successful increases in RUB-denominated prices reflects improved buying activity on the domestic market, which has partially offset the impact of RUB devaluation.