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ibud.ua Ukrainian steel majors cut output in 10 months, decline still slowing Most of Ukraine's steel majors again reduced finished roll production considerably in January-October 2009, although the decline in the industry still seems to be slowing.

ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih (formerly Kryvorizhstal), the country's biggest steel mill, reduced finished roll production tentatively 24.3% year-on-year to 3.643 million tonnes, the company told Interfax.

Azovstal said it reduced roll output 26.1% year-on-year to 3.431 million tonnes, Zaporizhstal reduced it 18.8% to 2.286 million tonnes and the Illich works from Mariupol slashed output 35.8% to 2.484 million tonnes.

The Alchevsk Iron & Steel Works, a member of the Industrial Union of Donbas (IUD) group, cut roll output 19.9% year-on-year to 2.848 million tonnes, but IUD's Dzerzhinsky Metallurgical Combine (DMK) boosted it 17.2% year-on-year to 2.743 million tonnes.

Steel industry output in Ukraine started to plummet in August last year due to a drop in demand, particularly in October-December. Some steel mills stopped some of their capacity. However some signs of improvement were seen in May.

The Donetsk Electrometallurgical Plant (formerly ITSTIL) restarted production on September 9 after idling for two months and matched its pre-crisis output of 88, 800 tonnes of crude steel in October, did not give roll or steel production figures for ten months.