Evraz posts EBITDA of $577m for the six months to end-June, down 38.1% on the year, primarily reflecting the lagged effect of weak steel pricing

The lost-time injury frequency ratio (LTIFR) of 2.48x was up 28% year-on-year due to increased reporting transparency of minor injuries.

Chief executive Alexander Frolov, said: "Overall, the first half of 2016 can be divided into two distinct parts for Evraz and the sector. In the first quarter conditions were largely unchanged from the end of 2015, but in the second quarter, steel market conditions improved, and the Group demonstrated a stronger performance, largely due to a supportive pricing environment in its main markets.

"In regards to health and safety, Evraz continues its efforts to improve injury reporting transparency and prevent fatalities. Throughout its work, the Group remains committed to its ultimate goal of reaching zero fatalities at all sites.

"Structural overcapacity remains a challenge for the steel industry and Evraz continues to pursue its cost-cutting initiatives. These initiatives resulted in an incremental contribution of US$138 million to EBITDA in H1 2016.

"Evraz remains focused on net debt reduction and refinancing. The Group has extended the overall duration of its debt and will comfortably cover maturities in 2016 and 2017 using a combination of currently available liquidity and future free cash flow generation.

Given the higher prices and stronger domestic demand in the second quarter, Evraz's outlook for the rest of the year is cautiously optimistic."

There u go, Claret Dragon

Looks good

it's time to take profit now at 185p

Already out.

Nice little earner as Arthur Daley would say

StockMarketWire.com
Evraz increased consolidated crude steel output to 3.5 tonnes in the third quarter - 5.9% up on the previous three months.

It said this followed the completion of capital repairs at Evraz DMZ's oxygen-converter plant and the ramp-up of Evraz Regina after the planned outage in the second quarter.

Production of steel products, net of re-rolled volumes, increased by 4.4% quarter-on-quarter to 3.1 million tonnes as a result of increased output of semi-finished products due to the completion of planned capital repairs at Evraz ZSMK and Evraz DMZ.

Production of construction products increased by 6.0% quarter-on-quarter following a seasonal upturn in demand.

Production of railway products was down 9.8% due to planned capital repairs at Russian facilities and planned downtime for maintenance in North America.

StockMarketWire.com
The imposition of US sanctions on Russian companies helped contribute to weakness in the mining sector and saw the FTSE 100 erase earlier gains to close more or less flat.

Russian steel giant Evraz (EVR), down 15.8%.