Metinvest to Increase Iron Ore Production by 2% yoy in 2008

According to Ukrainian News, Metinvest announced it plans to increase iron ore production by 2% yoy to 40.1 mln mt in 2008. Inguletsky Iron Ore’s (IGOK: N/R) output is planned to increase by 3.6% yoy to 14.2 mln mt and Pivnichny Iron Ore (SGOK: N/R) will produce 2.4% more than in 2007. Kryviy Rih Iron Ore and Centralny Iron Ore (CGOK: N/R) will retain their output levels at 7.1 mln mt and 5.8 mln mt, respectively. Metinvest’s iron ore division director, Alexander Vilkul, said that the company intends to increase exports by 20% to 5 mln mt in 2008, which is 12.5% of total output. The key export destinations will remain Central and Eastern Europe, as well as China.