NLMK USA increases production of steel in Q2 while sales decrease

Russian steel company NLMK reduced steel sales to the United States in the second quarter, while production rose.

NLMK's US hot-rolled steel sales fell 15% quarter-on-quarter to 313,000 tonnes from 369,000 tonnes in the same months a year earlier.

Cold rolled steel sales fell 15% year on year to 110,000 tonnes from 129,000 tonnes. Galvanized steel sales rose 14% to 158,000 tons from 139,000 a year earlier.

Total sales fell 8.5% to 584,000 tons in the second quarter from 638,000 tons in the same period the previous year.

Second-quarter steel production at NLMK's steel mill in Portage, Indiana, rose 2.2% to 185,000 tonnes from 181,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

The company attributed the 17% drop in slab sales to a decrease in shipments from its offshore operations in the United States following the introduction of a 25% steel tariff in March 2018 due to section 232.

Slab sales by NLMK USA and NLMK Dansteel, based in Denmark, fell 51% to 224,000 tonnes in the second quarter.