Q1 2006 NLMK Group Trading update

OJSC Novolipetsk Steel (LSE: NLMK) today released the following regular trading update for Q1 2006.*

The table below shows the production volume of NLMK’s principal steel products on its main site for Q1 2006:

	Q1 2006	Q1 2005	Change
	Amount	Amount	Amount	%
	(in million of metric tonnes, except for percentages)
	(in million of metric tonnes, except for percentages)
Pig Iron	2.20	2.12	0.08	4.0
Steel	2.29	2.19	0.10	4.4
Slabs	0.98	0.90	0.08	8.9
Hot-rolled steel	0.43	0.51	-0.08	-14.6
Cold-rolled steel	0.59	0.54	0.05	7.8
Hot dip galvanized steel	0.09	0.06	0.03	55.7
Pre-painted steel	0.08	0.05	0.03	69.2
Non-grain-oriented steel	0.088	0.093	0.005	-5.9
Grain-oriented steel	0.04	0.03	0.01	19.3

The table below shows principal product tonnage produced at NLMK’s Danish subsidiary, DanSteel A/S:

	Q1 2006	Q1 2005	Change
	Amount	Amount	Amount	%
(in thousands of metric tonnes, except for percentages)
Heavy plates	114	146	-32	-27.7

The table below shows the average price realized for each of NLMK’s main steel segments** for Q1 2006:

	USD per tonne (FCA)
	Q1 2006	Q1 2005	Change
			USD	%
Pig Iron	181	263	-82	-31.2
Slabs	255	428	-173	-40.4
Hot-rolled steel	426	516	-90	-17.4
Cold-rolled steel	508	615	-107	-17.4
Hot dip galvanized steel	745	818	-73	-8.9
Pre-painted steel	880	926	-46	-5.0
Non-grain-oriented steel	601	818	-217	-26.5
Grain-oriented steel	2909	1769	1140	64.4

The table below shows the DanSteel A/S average heavy plate prices** for Q1 2006:

	USD per tonne (FCA)
	Q1 2006	Q1 2005	Change
			USD	%
Heavy plates	649	888	-239	-36.8

Anton Bazulev, NLMK’s spokesman, commented:

“We recently announced our new forecast of increasing steel output to 10 million tonnes by 2010. NLMK’s steel production volumes for the first quarter of 2006 rose 4.4% in comparison to Q1 2005. In addition, the company substantially increased the production of high value-added products during the first quarter. Despite a slight fall in prices at the beginning of the year, we continue to maintain a stable outlook for the global steel market.”
________________
* All information on production volumes is preliminary and may be subject to change.

** excluding freight charge.

Q1 2006 NLMK Group Trading update

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