ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih PJSC (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk Region) finished the year 2022 with a considerable net loss due to the war and the company operating at 25% of its capacity, but received a $600mn financial aid from ArcelorMittal Corporation.
According to Mauro Longobardo, the company’s general manager, during a communication with the workforce and heads of departments, an account of which was published by the corporate newspaper Metallurg, last year was difficult for the company in all respects.
“The financial situation was very difficult, we have a significant net loss, but we received a significant financial assistance from ArcelorMittal. This money was necessary to continue paying salaries to employees and keep working in spite of difficulties with raw materials procurement, its high cost and other problems,” explained the top manager.
According to him, the company experienced additional losses due to logistics.
“In this matter, we now need to be as flexible as possible. Every week we decide what kind of products we should sell to minimize costs. We hope that this year the situation will improve,” said the mill manager, expressing the hope that the losses will be reduced to zero.
Longobardo also said that the company now plans to increase production in order to achieve at least the prewar level.
On the topic of environmental protection, the general director stressed that the company has until the end of 2023 to further reduce obsolete assets.
“Ukraine is working to meet the conditions of the EU on many issues. And it is already clear that this way it will go much faster than expected. Our company is also accelerating on many fronts. After the war and reaching pre-war production capacity, the company plans to invest in the modernization of the enterprise, implement and introduce the latest production technologies,” Longobardo said.
According to him, the company has planned to allocate $130 million for capital investments for 2023. The main renovation project will be the construction of the Third Map tailings pond. Works on other equally important projects will be continued: the completion of the Fourth Card and Mirolyubovskoye tailing dumps. Special attention will be paid to the pelletizing plant construction project, work on which was suspended because of the war.
In metallurgical production, it is planned to reline Blast Furnace No. 9, and work will continue on its modernization – in fact, it will be the construction of a new tenth blast furnace. There are also plans to increase production in the converter shop, to improve the work of the continuous caster, in the coke plant, in the sintering shop No. 2, etc.
“Now we have time to prepare well for this, so that we can then work hard to increase and stabilize production and implement all capex plans using the most modern technologies,” summarized the CEO.
“ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular rebar and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant “ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog” in Ukraine and a number of small companies, in particular PJSC “ArcelorMittal Beryslav”.
