South Africa’s second-largest steel producer Highveld Steel & Vanadium reported a sharp fall in year-on-year production and prices for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009, relative to the same period last year.
In a notice to shareholders on Monday, the JSE-listed company reported that hot-metal output fell 31% to 125,251 t during the period, compared with the 181,603 t produced in the first three months of 2008.
The figure was also 18.7% lower than the 154,011 t produced during the fourth quarter of 2008.
Average steel prices were 6.7% down year-on-year at $696/t, from the $746/t achieved from January to the end of March 2008, and 23.9% lower than the $914/t achieved in the last quarter of 2008.
Ferrovanadium output fell by 29.2% to 1,2-million tons, compared with 1.7 million tons in the first quarter of 2008, but was 9.5% higher than the 1.1-million tons produced in the fourth quarter.
The price of ferrovanadium dropped by more than 42% to $27/kg, from $47/kg a year earlier. The price was also well down on the $44/kg achieved in the final quarter of 2008.
Source: Mining Weekly
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