Ferrexpo plc, a mining company with major assets in Ukraine, produced 4 million 567.168 thousand tons of pellets in January-September this year, up 41.9% year-on-year (3 million 218.273 thousand tons).
According to a press release on Monday, Ferrexpo produced 1 million 269,727 thousand tons of pellets in the third quarter of this year, down 14.4% from the previous quarter (1 million 483,468 thousand tons).
At the same time, the total production of commercial products (pellets and iron ore concentrate) in the first nine months of 2014 increased by 47.5% compared to the same period in 2023, to 5 million 125.034 thousand tons from 3 million 474.860 thousand tons. In particular, the production of commercial concentrate amounted to 557.866 thousand tons against 256.587 thousand tons in January-September 2023.
In addition, it is specified that the company, in particular, produced 326.168 thousand tons of DR pellets in the first nine months of 2014 (it did not produce any in the first nine months of 2013), 3 million 780.610 thousand tons of premium pellets and 460.390 thousand tons of other pellets.
The press release notes that during the quarter, the Group successfully operated one or two pelletizing lines (out of four), with a focus on producing higher quality products. DR pellets production continued during the third quarter, with a total of three deliveries to two customers.
Commenting on the Group’s performance, Lucio Genovese, Interim Executive Chairman, stated that the third quarter was a very challenging operational and macroeconomic environment for the company.
“As we emphasized in our interim results, the requirement to import 80% of our electricity from our western neighbors remains in place, and the resulting high tariffs continue to have a negative impact on our costs. The situation is further complicated by higher shipping rates and additional costs for war risk insurance,” Genovese said.
According to him, to mitigate the pressure on profitability, the group’s strategy was to focus on selling higher quality iron ore products to customers in close geographical proximity. This involved expanding the customer base and selling premium DR pellets in the MENA region.
The top manager emphasized that the ability to quickly adapt to modern challenges is a testament to the flexibility built into the operating model. This allowed the company to slightly reduce the impact of both the aforementioned factors and lower iron ore prices, when the fall in the 65% Fe benchmark price briefly tested price support levels of $100/tonne during the quarter, bottoming out at levels last seen in 2022.
At the same time, Genovese emphasized some positive changes in the market at the end of the reporting period: prices began to recover amid improved sentiment caused by the announcement of economic stimulus measures in China.
For his part, Group CFO Nikolay Kladiev noted that the combined effect of much lower iron ore prices and higher production costs put significant pressure on earnings in the third quarter.
“The high electricity tariffs that I pointed out in the interim period continue to grow and increase our C1 costs compared to the initial period. This year we also continued to see higher freight rates and additional war risk insurance premiums. In response, we have sought to contain costs wherever possible and manage our cash position, which remained at around $100 million at the end of the third quarter,” explained the CFO.
He also said that in the last days of September, Chinese stimulus measures, including the lifting of restrictions on home purchases, provided long-awaited support for iron ore prices.
“The pessimism about iron ore prices seems to have subsided for now, but the recent volatility in the third quarter does not provide any assurance that prices will remain at this level or improve further. We will continue to maintain a vigilant approach to our financial and operational performance for the remainder of the year,” Kladiev concluded.
As reported earlier, Ferrexpo produced 3.845 million tons of pellets in 2023, down 36.5% from 2022.
Ferrexpo owns a 100% stake in Yeristovo Mining, 99.9% in Bilanivsky GOK and 100% in Poltava Mining.
