Mining company Ferrexpo with assets in Ukraine, after suspending production since early October at its facilities in the Poltava region due to restrictions on electricity supply due to the shelling of the energy infrastructure by the Russian occupiers, is resuming operations of one pellet production line.
“After suspending its operations in October 2022, the group is now receiving enough electricity to restart one pellet production line. This will allow the group, along with its existing stockpiled products, to fulfill existing contracts with customers,” the company stated in a stock exchange statement Wednesday.
It explains that the company produced about 0.3 million tons of pellets in October-November as a result of disruptions and continued volatility in power supply in the fourth quarter of 2022. Overall pellet production in 2022 is expected to be about 5.9 to 6 million tons (down almost half by 2021 – IF-U).
“Despite the group’s production disruptions, shipments to customers in the fourth quarter of 2022 continued at about 250,000 tons per month,” the press release noted.
As reported, pellet production for the first nine months of 2022 was 5.637 million tons, down 31% from the same period last year.
Ferrexpo in 2021 increased total pellet production by 0.02% over 2020 to 11.220 million tons. The company also produced 234,000 tons of saleable concentrate with 67% iron content (up 28%) in 2021.
Poltava GOK has four pellet production lines.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of LLC “Yeristovsky GOK” and 99.9% of LLC “Belanovsky GOK”. Before the September 2022 court ruling, Ferrexpo also owned 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC.