Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group sells 30% of its metal products on the domestic market in Ukraine and supplies 70% to foreign markets, according to the company’s chief operating officer (COO) Alexander Mironenko in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“About 30% of metal companies’ products are sold on the domestic market, while 70% are sold on foreign markets. Most of the products are exported to European countries that share a border with Ukraine or to Southeast Europe, which is where the majority of our rolled metal products are shipped. We also supply rolled products (mainly coil) to the Middle East and Asian countries. A small portion of pig iron is sent to the US, and some is shipped to China through ports,” the agency’s interlocutor explained.
Regarding iron ore products, he noted that China is the main consumer of Metinvest’s iron ore concentrate and pellets. At the same time, approximately 60% of iron ore concentrate is shipped to China through Ukrainian ports.
The company’s iron ore raw materials are also consumed by Northern European countries, with volumes there increasing over the past 1.5 years following a significant improvement in the quality of Metinvest’s iron ore pellets.
“We ship our iron ore products to Northern European countries in order to conquer a new market there,” said Mironenko.
The top manager added that Northern GOK has almost reached its pre-war levels: it has two quarries in operation and a fully loaded enrichment plant. Both roasting machines, LURGI 552A and LURGI 552B, are involved in pellet production, operating alternately depending on the pellet production tasks.
According to him, Southern GOK has also now reached pre-war production volumes. The Central GOK is operating below pre-war volumes: there are two quarries where mining has been suspended, but the enrichment plant is operating at almost 80% capacity, receiving ore from other quarries for enrichment.
He added that Ingulets Mining and Processing Plant is currently at a standstill: “There is a small amount of ore mining and concentrate production for technological purposes – volumes are up to 40,000 tons per month, which is a kind of maintenance mode.”
As reported, in early August this year, the United Mining and Processing Plant (UMPP) of the Metinvest Group, comprising the Central, Ingulets, and Northern Mining and Processing Plants, brought the Artemivsk (Central Mining and Processing Plant), Hannivsk (Northern Mining and Processing Plant), and Kolachevsky (Central Mining and Processing Plant) quarries and mines up to their design capacity.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine – in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions – as well as in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of the Metinvest Group.
