MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian steelmaking giant Severstal said on Wednesday its steel production fell 48% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 3.14 million tons.

Iron ore output dropped 37% to 2.49 million tons, while gold production was up 83% to 2.6 tons.

Steel output for the whole of 2008 was up 10% on 2007 at 19.2 million tons.

The company said fourth quarter 2008 sales were between 15% and 29% lower than the previous quarter.

Severstal, which accounts for over 16% of Russian steel output and has production facilities in Russia, the United States, Italy, France, Britain, and Ukraine, produced 17.5 million metric tons of steel and reported $15.2 billion in revenues in 2007.