Magnitorgorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), a leading Russian metals company and one of the world's largest steel producers, has released its Q1 2014 financial results.
The company has announced revenues totalling US$1.8 billion, up 5% quarter-on-quarter, and claims that growth was mainly due to increased sales volumes during the period.
Cost of sales was down 0.5% to US$1.5 billion and EBITDA was down 6% quarter-on-quarter.
MMK was able to decrease the cash cost of slab by more than 5% (US$337/tonne) due to a decline in key raw materials prices and announced an operating profit of US$78 million.
Total revenue from the company's steel segment amounted to US$1.7 billion, up 2.5% quarter-on-quarter and due to increased sales volumes by OJSC MMK (up 8.6%) and MMK-Metiz (up 2.6%).
MMK's Turkish steel operations recorded revenues of US$134 million, which was down US$34 million quarter-on-quarter and primarily due to declining sales volumes.
MMK's Turkish operation, MMK Metalurj, recorded EBITDA of US$13 million, down US$1 million quarter-on-quarter, and with a margin of 9.7%.
MMK Metalurji's capacity utilisation rate is expected to 'remain at near-maximum capacity' in 2014.
Looking ahead to Q2, MMK expects increased production and sales volumes and believes that declining global iron ore prices will be good news for the company's Q2 2014 results.