Owing to higher-than-expected demand, Alchevsk Steel (ALMK) increased its monthly plate production target by 18-27% to 65-70,000t, Metal-Courier reported. The plant also expects to produce 260-265,000t of rolled steel (+13% m/m) and export approximately 160,000t of slabs (+28% m/m) in the month.

Eugen Dubogryz: Alchevsk suffered from a lack of working capital for raw inputs purchases to kick start the year. The situation led to a 2% m/m daily steel output decline in January to 8,213t, or 18% below its average FY09 daily output of 10,000t. In early February the problem was resolved as Alchevsk’s new investors provided the plant with a steady flow of capital. In February, we expect the company will produce an average 10,400t daily crude steel and expand output further in March thanks to new orders from Russia. We confirm our FY10E projection of 4.73mmt of crude steel (+17.3% y/y) for Alchevsk.