Production of hot rolled coil and plate at South Africa’s Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium surged quarter-on-quarter in Q4 thanks to greater cast slab availability, Kallanish learns from the company.

A 9% increase in hot metal output to 167,975 tonnes thanks to improved efficiency and improved iron ore quality contributed to a 13% rise in semi-product output to 160,215t in Q4. This made more slab available for a 118% surge in plate production to 43,367t q-on-q and a 19% increase in HRC output to 29,969t. On a year-on-year comparison, however, plate output was up 6%, while HRC production fell 2%.

Production of iron ore fines rose 4% in Q4 versus Q3 to 196,431t as the company's ramp up continued after a previous shutdown for mine maintenance. Vanadium slag production rose 15% to 2.03 million t and ferrovanadium 17% to 1.13mt after maintenance carried out in Q3.

Average steel sales prices in Q4 increased 3% versus Q3 to ZAR 7,334/t ($635/t), while iron ore fines prices declined 8% to ZAR 494/t due to decreased global prices.