Russia's Evraz 2015 core earnings down 39 pct

MOSCOW, March 15 (Reuters) - Evraz (LSE: EVR.L - news) , one of Russia's largest steel producers, said on Tuesday its core earnings fell 39 percent in 2015 due to lower prices for its products, partially offset by a weaker rouble.

Evraz and other Russian steel producers have been supported by the weaker rouble reducing costs in dollar terms and making exports more profitable, but were hit by a drop in global steel prices which fell by a third last year.

Evraz's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to $1.4 billion in 2015 compared with $2.4 billion in 2014, in line with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.

The company, part-owned by Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, also posted a net loss of $719 million due to $441 million of impairment charges and $367 million of foreign exchange losses. In 2014, its net loss was at $1.3 billion.

Evraz said its impairments included the write-off of goodwill at its subsidiaries in the United States and Canada and the impairment of the cash-generating units of Palini e Bertoli in Italy.

The company's revenue was down 33 percent to $8.8 billion, while net debt was reduced to $5.3 billion by the end of 2015 from $5.8 billion at the end of 2014.

Evraz said on a conference call its capital expenditure in 2016 would be less than $400 million, down from $428 million in 2015.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Evraz were down 2.4 percent in London on Tuesday morning, underperforming a 0.3 percent decline in FTSE 250 Index . (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Polina Devitt and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Mark Potter)