Ferrexpo plc, a mining company with primary assets in Ukraine, produced 524,926 thousand tons of pellets in January–March of this year, which is 61% lower than in January–March of last year (1,347,749 thousand tons), but 27% more than in Q4 2025, when 412,867 thousand tons were produced.
According to the company’s press release on Wednesday, total production of commercial products (pellets and iron ore concentrate) in Q1 2026 fell by 72% compared to Q1 2025—to 592,751 thousand tons. Specifically, production of premium-grade Fe67% concentrate amounted to 67,825 thousand tons, compared to 777,718 thousand tons in Q1 2025 (a 91% decrease). The company also produced 524,926 thousand tons of premium-grade pellets (a 52% decrease). Meanwhile, no DR pellets (81,787 thousand tons were produced in Q1 2025) or other pellets (160,913 thousand tons) were produced.
The press release explains that Ferrexpo’s production activities were largely suspended in the first quarter due to nationwide attacks on Ukraine’s electricity generation and transmission infrastructure. Production resumed only with limited operations at reduced capacity levels in late February 2026 following improved electricity availability and prices. The Group continues to operate one of its four pelletizing lines and sell its products to European customers.
As noted in the trading update announced on April 1, 2026, the Group focused on carefully managing its working capital and expenses amid challenging operating conditions. This included reducing employee working hours, continuously cutting purchases of goods and services, and further suspending all non-essential capital expenditures, overhead costs, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenses.
The company continues to closely monitor its cash position and working capital and remains actively exploring and refining a range of potential financing options, which may include raising equity capital. At this stage, there is no certainty that the Group will successfully secure such financing options. If the withholding of VAT refunds continues and financing issues are not resolved in a timely manner, this could result in significant adverse consequences for the Group.
Commenting on the Group’s performance, interim acting chairman Lucio Genovese (Lucio Genovese) noted that the lower production figures in the first quarter of 2026—nearly half of those achieved in the last three months of 2025—reflect Russia’s targeted attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure at the end of last year and their impact on the company’s ability to operate stably.
“Until January, given that electricity supply could not be secured on a stable basis in the necessary volumes, we were forced to make the difficult decision to temporarily suspend operations and send part of the workforce on leave. Fortunately, by the end of February, we saw sufficient improvement in the availability and price of electricity to resume limited production at the PGZK on one pellet production line. One line remains in operation, and the group continues to use its own fleet of railcars for exports to customers in Eastern and Central Europe. “Going forward, we will focus on managing working capital and costs in this challenging operating environment,” said Genovese.
As reported, Ferrexpo produced 3,221,461 metric tons of pellets in 2025, which is 47% lower than in the previous year (6,070,541 metric tons). At the same time, total production of commercial products (pellets and iron ore concentrate) in 2025 decreased by 9% to 6,141,759 thousand tons. In particular, commercial concentrate output amounted to 2,920,298 thousand tons compared to 709,803 thousand tons, respectively. The company also produced 81,787 thousand tons of DR pellets (489,720 thousand tons in 2024) and 3,139,674 thousand tons of premium-grade pellets (a 44% decrease).
In 2024, Ferrexpo increased pellet production by 58% compared to 2023—to 6,070,541 thousand tons from 3,845,325 thousand tons. In 2023, the company produced 3.845 million tons of pellets, which is 36.5% less than in 2022.
Ferrexpo owns a 100% stake in Yeristivsky GOK LLC, 99.9% in Bilanivsky GOK LLC, and 100% of the shares in Poltavsky GOK PJSC.
