Metinvest, the largest Ukrainian mining and metallurgical holding, increased steel production by 3% in 2019 compared with 2018, to 7.578 million tonnes, and pig iron production fell by 3%, to 7.928 million tonnes, and total coke production – by 11%, to 4.667 million tonnes. Metinvest B.V., the parent company of the holding, said in a report on operational results for Q4 2019 and entire 2019, in Q4 2019 pig iron production fell by 7% compared with the previous quarter, to 1.887 million tonnes due to scheduled major overhauls of blast furnaces at the Mariupol steelmakers.
Steel production in Q4 2019 fell by 16% compared with the previous quarter, to 1.673 million tonnes as the group both produced less hot metal and allocated more to make merchant pig iron. The latter came amid higher demand for that product and lower demand for slabs and finished products.
In Q4 2019, coke production totaled 1.05 million tonnes, which is 8% less than in the previous quarter due to a fall in domestic consumption in the reporting period.
In 2019, Metinvest’s coke output dropped due to: a shortage of coal that started in June 2019, as direct supply stopped from Russia; unstable operation of coke-oven batteries, a coke dryquenching plant and emergency shutdowns of coke cars early this year at Avdiyivka Coke Plant; and lower intragroup consumption in Q4 2019.
