External steel product sales volumes at EVRAZ’ Steel segment remained strong in 2017 (+0.7% y-o-y). The decline in construction products shipments was compensated by railway products sales, which rose by 13% with wheels being the major growth driver. Sales volumes of semi-fnished steel products to third parties remained mostly unchanged in 2017.

EVRAZ’ sales volumes of key finished products in Russia mostly increased in 2017. The new cycle in railcar production led to a doubling of wheel sales, and rail sales were up 6% due to Russian Railways’ stable investment programme. Rebar sales were down 12% due to heightened competition in Central Russia. Beams and structural products shipments faced a decline of 6% and 12% respectively.

Despite the growth of demand in the Russian long steel sector, the competition is increasing. EVRAZ is undertaking several initiatives to support domestic market share and developing new product types for clients. In rails, the market share was almost the same as last year at roughly 70% and we target this market share going forward. The Group’s share on the structural product market was 41%, market shares for beams and rebars stood at 56% and 11% respectively. The share of the grinding balls market was 63%.

Evraz Caspian Steel’s rebar sales decreased by 39% to 110 thousand tonnes in 2017.

Sales at EVRAZ DMZ were almost the same as in 2016 at 964 thousand tonnes due to a combination of improved local market demand and reduced export shipments.

The Group’s finished vanadium product sales volumes increased by 3.2%, from 15.2 thousand tonnes of pure vanadium in 2016 to 15.7 thousand tonnes in 2017, amid a decline in supplies from China and positive global prices.

EVRAZ sold 1.7 million tonnes of iron ore pellets to third parties in the year, up 3.2% year-on-year, due to increased demand on the Russian market. Other external iron ore product volumes dropped by 53% due to the disposal of Evraz Sukha Balka.

EVRAZ remained the leader in rail production with a 69% market share in 2017.

	2017	2016	Change, %
Russia	4,939	4,998	(1.2)
Asia	3,328	3,285	1.3
Europe	1,499	1,302	15.1
CIS	972	883	10.0
Africa, America and the rest of the world	1,141	1,323	(13.8)
Total	11,879	11,792	0.7

	2017	2016	Change, %
Steel products, external sales	11,879	11,792	0.7
Semi-finished products	5,735	5,601	2.4
Construction products	3,750	4,135	(9.3)
Railway products	1,281	1,134	13.0
Flat-rolled products	511	351	45.6
Other steel products	601	571	5.3
Steel products, inter-segment sales	587	521	12.7
Total steel products	12,466	12,313	1.2
Vanadium products (tonnes of pure vanadium)	22,319	20,428	9.3
Vanadium in slag	6,647	5,261	26.3
Vanadium in alloys and chemicals The difference in 2016 numbers vs annual report 2016 is a result of adjustments in the sales volumes of vanadium products.	15,672	15,167	3.2
Iron ore products	2,937	4,222	(30.4)
Iron ore concentrate	25	40	(37.5)
Pellets	1,726	1,672	3.2
Other iron ore products	1,186	2,510	(52.7)