Russia's Mechel coal, steel output up in September

MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Mechel (MTL.N), Russia's largest coking coal miner and No. 6 steel maker, said on Thursday it raised output of most products in the first nine months of 2008 due to acquisitions and upgrades at existing plants.

The purchase of coal miner Yakutugol helped Mechel increase coking coal production by 95 percent between January and September to 12,409 tonnes, while total coal output rose 54 percent.

Mechel (MTLR.RTS) said in a statement coal concentrate output also rose significantly, while crude steel output increased by 4 percent year-on-year to 4.745 million tonnes.

Mechel also said it raised output and sales of higher-value products, such as hardware, by processing more semi-finished products.

"Mechel continues to implement its long-term strategy of transitioning to the manufacturing of downstream products with high added value in its steel segment and increasing production efficiency in all of its business segments," chief executive Vladimir Polin said in a statement.

Mechel provided the following data for output in the first nine months of 2008 (in million tonnes, unless specified):

Product Jan-Sept 2008 yr/yr pct change

Coal 20.702 +54

Coking coal 12.409 +95

Steam coal 8.293 +17

Coal concentrate 11.213 +30

Coking 9.264 +41

Steam 1.949 -7

Iron ore

concentrate 3.620 -2.5