Mittal Steel to import 45 000 tons

johannesburg - mittal steel south africa said yesterday that it would import 45 000 tons of steel slabs to make up for loss of output after a fire last month.

"we have ordered 45 000 tons of steel from within the [mittal] group to help meet the shortfall after the fire we had. we are also increasing production from our other furnaces and diverting products intended for export," said rick reato, the chief executive of mittal steel sa.

the company's output was disrupted after damage caused by a fire at its main plant in vanderbijlpark. the company said it had estimated a loss of 106 000 tons in liquid steel output.

reato did not give costs of the imports, but said the company would import more if necessary.

he reiterated that growth in the fourth quarter would be strong despite the fire, rising raw material costs and the impact of a stronger rand currency.

costs, which have dogged the company's bottom line in recent quarters, would be "more or less the same" in the fourth quarter to end-december compared with the third quarter, but would rise by up to 12 percent for flat steel products and up to 10 percent for long steel products compared with the fourth quarter of 2005.


reato did not foresee the company raising steel prices in the next few months, but this was dependent on global steel prices and the rand dollar exchange rate.

he was speaking a day after mittal steel sa, which is 52 percent owned by arcelor mittal, said it had lifted third-quarter headline earnings to r3.30 a share from r2.21 in the same period last year.

it cited higher domestic sales and prices and a weaker rand dollar exchange rate as boosting its earnings, but growth was hurt by lower export volumes and higher input costs.

the increases were mainly driven by a substantial increase in the cost of imported and domestic coal, scrap, iron ore and zinc and lower production volumes, the company said.

shares in mittal steel sa traded 0.81 percent up to r94.29 on the jse yesterday, while the top40 index gained 0.27 percent.