Metalloinvest expects to invest $450mn in 2020 towards capital expenditures, the company announced on Tuesday in its annual earnings report. In 2019, the company had increased capital expenditures to $517mn or 17.2pc against the previous year’s investments, with mining receiving $195mn in investments and the steel segment getting $102mn.
In 2019, the Russian steel maker’s hot metal or pig iron production decreased by 9.1pc to 2.7mn mt compared with 2018. The company said the drop was because of pig iron being replaced by scrap and HBI/DRI in Europe due to the strict environmental requirements in the region.
Crude steel production decreased by 3.7pc to 4.9mn mt in 2019 compared to the previous year because of reconstructions and hot tests of Metalloinvest’s two electric arc furnaces launched using FMF Technology at Ural Steel in 2019.
Around $2.83bn or 40.7pc of the company’s revenue came from the Russian market in 2019. Its exports share to destinations such as Europe, Asia, and other countries ticked down 1pc to 59.3pc compared to a year ago.
Iron ore shipments during the year were down by 0.3pc to 40.2mn mt in 2019, while pellet processing increased by 1.5pc to 28.1mn mt. The production of HBI/DRI also increased by 0.5pc in 2019 compared to 2018. Supply disruptions in Brazil and Australia in 2019 pushed up market prices for iron and pellets. Metalloinvest also launched shipments of premium quality pellets at this time. Together, these factors contributed to better financial results for the business segment.
2019 also saw the completion of the second, and final stage of Metalloinvest’s major digital transformation which ensures a unified integrated financial and operations management system. The efficiencies are expected to reduce some overhead and planning costs.
Metalloinvest’s revenues decreased by 3.2pc in 2019 to $6.96bn compared to 2018. Its EBITDA declined 14.3pc to $2.514bn compared to a year ago despite a strong EBITDA margin. The company’s net income increased by 5.1pc to $1.731bn compared to 2018.