KYIV. April 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has almost fully stopped shipping metal products to Russia and it is looking for new markets, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih CEO Paramjit Kahlon said at a press conference held at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv.
He said that since December 2014, the Russian market has almost closed for the company.
“In Q3 2014 our supplies totaled 55,000-60,000 tonnes a month, then they fell to 35,000-40,000 tonnes and now we almost do not sell [in Russia],” he said.
He said that the key markets for the company are the Middle East and North Africa, including Lebanon, Israel, Syria and others.
“We have to look for new markets for our products to find new consumers and we conduct market studies to find sales markets. In 2014, a first test batch of our roll was sent to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Kahlon said that the company has to compete with Chinese and Russian producers on foreign markets. Russian enterprise boosted exports sharply after the large devaluation of the Russian ruble.
The cash cost of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih’s products grew due to the worsening or halt of supplies of Ukrainian raw materials from the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone and the necessity of replacing it with imported products.
“We’re looking for internal reserves to increase our efficiency, opportunities of cutting the production cost to remain competitive and not to cut production,” Kahlon, adding that in 2014 the company sold 86% of its products on foreign markets and only 14% on the domestic market.
