In 2024, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipro region) increased its rolled steel production by 72.1% compared to 2023, to 1 million 534,519 thousand tons from 891,438 thousand tons, and steel production by 69.9%, to 1 million 651,410 thousand tons from 971,846 thousand tons.
According to the company’s press release on Tuesday, pig iron production increased by 42.7% to 2 million 167.616 thousand tons from 1 million 519.183 thousand tons.
In addition, AMKR increased production of coke with 6% moisture by 48.5% to 1 million 254,743 thousand tons from 845,068 thousand tons, and iron ore concentrate by 71.7% to 7 million 820,682 thousand tons from 4 million 555,365 thousand tons. Iron ore production increased by 68.3% to 19 million 189.037 thousand tons from 11 million 401.600 thousand tons.
At the same time, it is noted that due to a number of problems, including a shortage of electricity supply, high electricity prices and the need to import a significant portion of it, as well as expensive logistics, and unfavorable price situation in the steel markets, AMKR was unable to break even in 2024.
In the middle of the year, the plant managed to temporarily achieve 50% utilization of its steelmaking capacity. The mining department operated at around 70-75% of pre-war production.
Mauro Longobardo, CEO of AMKR, stated that the war continues to affect all production-related processes.
“We have made every effort to achieve zero losses, we have done everything in our power to reduce costs within the company and optimize consumption. But this (breakeven – IF-U) did not happen for a number of reasons. The operation of one blast furnace and the fire at the coke oven battery due to blackout in the summer and its loss played a role here. In addition, costly logistics, unstable energy supply due to constant enemy attacks, a personnel crisis, depressed foreign markets where we can export our products – all this negatively affects our competitiveness and, accordingly, our financial results,” explained the CEO.
According to him, the plant’s business plan is focused on survival.
“So far, we are very cautious in our forecasts and realize that our results are far from the pre-war ones. We continue to invest only in a project that is strategically important for production – the construction of the Third Map tailings dump, the first phase of which we completed this year. For 2025, our goal remains the same: to be able to do it on our own without the financial assistance of the group that supports us in these difficult times. Despite all the challenges, AMKR remains in Ukraine and with Ukraine. We believe in the Victory and are ready to take part in the country’s recovery,” Longobardo summarized.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle and its production capacity is designed to produce over 6 million tons of steel, over 5 million tons of rolled products and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron annually.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
Ukraine’s sugar producers have completed the 2024 production season, the press service of the National Association of Sugar Producers of Ukraine (Ukrtsukor) reported on its Facebook page.
According to the press service, 28 member plants of the association produced 1.724 million tons of sugar. In addition, in the 2024-2025 production year, another sugar plant that is not a member of the association also operated in Ukraine. According to the industry association, the total sugar production in the country amounted to 1.8 million tons.
“Thus, the volume of production in 2024 is actually equal to the figures of 2023, when the country produced 1.826 million tons,” Ukrtsukr summarized.
As reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing data from the Ukrtsukor association, 37 sugar factories operated in Ukraine in 2023. One plant in the Kharkiv region, located in the de-occupied territory, was not ready to enter the processing season, as farmers in the region had not sown sugar beets.
In 2024, Nova Poshta, the leader of express shipments in Ukraine, increased the volume of shipments by 16% compared to 2023 – up to 480 million shipments.
“According to the results of 2024, Nova Poshta set a new record for parcel delivery – 480 million shipments. This is 16% more than in 2023, when Nova Poshta transported 412 million parcels,” the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
The number of international parcels delivered by Nova Poshta in 2024 increased by 86% compared to 2023, to 19 million. The company delivered 4 million international shipments between countries.
The company’s customers ordered goods from China, the US, Poland, and the UK. The most popular items were cases and covers, headphones, T-shirts, children’s accessories, and household items. The favorite stores of Ukrainians in the NP Shopping service were eBay, Amazon, Zara, H&M and Nike.
“Ukrainians are a people who like to look good, dress stylishly and read a lot. At the same time, they are happy to print something on a 3D printer,” Nova Global (a division of Nova Poshta) reported on Linkedin.
According to the data, in 2024, 57% of goods were ordered by Ukrainians in the United States, 19% in Poland, 10% in the UK, and 9% in Germany.
Last year, Ukrainians most often received clothes, household goods, decorative cosmetics, spare parts and components for various equipment, shoes, household items, and food at Nova Poshta offices, the company said.
“Nova Poshta operates in 16 European countries: France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Moldova.
In 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) increased the volume of freight transportation by 17.9% year-on-year to 174.9 million tons.
“At the end of 2024, 174.9 million tons were transported by rail in Ukraine, which is 26.5 million tons, or 17.9%, more than last year (2023 – IF-U),” UZ said in an analytical note.
It is reported that the opportunity to increase the volume of rail transportation exists thanks to the Ukrainian sea corridor. The bulk of the cargo traffic is made up of products of farmers and metallurgists transported for export.
Exports were the main driver of rail transportation in 2024, with a share of 48% in total freight traffic, compared to only 38% in 2023. Import cargo transportation volumes in 2024 increased by 40.9% compared to 2023 to 9.63 million tons. Domestic transportation decreased by 5.5% to 80.2 million tons. While in 2023 the share of domestic transportation in total cargo traffic was 57%, in 2024 it decreased to 46%.
In total, in 2024, UZ transported 84.67 million tons in the export direction, which is 51.2% more than in 2023. The largest volume of cargo grains was transported – 34.13 million tons (40% of the volume transported for export), iron and manganese ore – 33.00 million tons (39%), and ferrous metals – 5.17 million tons (6%).
In 2024, 29.2 million tons of grain cargo (86%) was transported to ports, which is twice as much as in 2023. Only 4.9 mln tonnes of grain were transported via land border crossings, which is 41.6% less than in 2023.
In general, the volume of transportation through land border crossings in 2024 decreased by 8.6% compared to 2023, to 30.9 million tons or 37% of the volume of export transportation of all types of cargo. “UZ has 19 railway border crossings, of which 15 are operational.
The volume of transportation to ports in 2024 increased by 2.4 times compared to 2023 to 53.76 million tons. In total cargo exports, their share in 2024 was 63%.
According to the results of 2024, the leading positions in terms of cargo exports are held by the stations: “Chornomorsk (17%), Berehove (14%), Odesa Port (13%), Chornomorsk Port (12%), Izov (11%), Chop (7%), Uzhhorod (6%), and Izmail (4%).
Earlier it was reported that the volume of cargo transportation by UZ in the first 11 months of 2024 increased by 19.4% to 160.9 million tons.
The launch of a new plant for primary processing of industrial hemp in the Ma’Ryzhany industrial park in Zhytomyr region is scheduled for March-April 2025, said Dmytro Kysylevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“The construction of a new plant at the industrial Ma’Rizhany has reached the final stage. We plan to launch production of natural fibers and fescue in March-April. The volume of investments in the first line of the project is about $25 million,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday after his visit to the IP.
He reminded that the equipment for the new plant was imported with a zero VAT rate and import duty.
“An attempt is being made in Riga to revive the entire industrial hemp processing industry. Fiber production is large-scale, but only the first stage of processing. The next stage is yarn production. It will also require an investment of about $25 million. If we talk about launching the production of hemp fabric, this will bring the total cost of the project to $100-120 million,” the MP said.
Kysylevsky noted that the management company Ma’Rizhany Hemp Company organized the cultivation and harvest of the first harvest of industrial hemp on the territory of 700 hectares on its own. Next year, it is planned to increase this area to 1200 hectares, as well as to involve another 500-600 hectares of Zhytomyr region farmers in the project.
“Although the cultivation of industrial hemp requires separate licensing and is under the scrutiny of law enforcement, it is highly profitable. And the fiber from the first harvest has already been contracted by almost 100% before the plant was launched,” Kisilevsky wrote.
According to him, buyers from France and Belgium came to Riga and saw the high quality of the raw materials.
“Fabric made from Ukrainian hemp will be used to make premium clothing from leading European designers. In general, the possibilities for production based on the processing of industrial hemp are very wide: bedding, ropes, sailcloth, tarpaulin, and even special paper for printing money,” the MP added.
It is expected that in the first year of operation, the new plant in Ryzhany will employ 200 residents of Zhytomyr region and process 4.5 thousand tons of raw materials. In the following years, the number of jobs will be 700, and the processing volume will be up to 12 thousand tons.
As reported, the Ma’Rizhany Industrial Park occupies 28 hectares, the territory of a former flax processing plant. It will become the first park in Europe for the primary processing of bast crops. It was included in the IP Register in August 2024.
The closure of the Mykolaiv seaport has brought the shipbuilding industry to a standstill and halted shipping on the E-40 river routes (Dnipro and Southern Bug), so the development of alternative export routes is an urgent need for food security in the world, said Mykhailo Rizak, Director of Government Relations at Nibulon JV LLC.
“Mykolaiv’s port facilities are ready to resume operations as soon as a political decision is made to open them, which will increase transshipment competition and reduce the cost of export logistics. More than 100 vessels are still blocked in the Mykolaiv port hub, including 30 foreign sea vessels and 70 vessels for inland waterways,” the agroholding’s press service quoted him as saying at a meeting with French Ambassador to Ukraine Gael Veyer.
Rizak noted that the evacuated vessels, which were previously used for transportation, are now idle and looking for new water routes around the world, including the Danube River.
“The development of alternative export routes is no longer a matter of choice, but an urgent need for food security in the world. Today, the Danube ports are strategic for Ukraine’s economic security, and we must do everything possible to maintain their competitiveness,” Rizak said.
Nibulon representatives paid special attention to the tariff policy of Ukrzaliznytsia during the negotiations. They emphasized that with the opening of Odesa’s deep-water ports, the cost of transportation through the Danube ports has become at least $5 per ton more expensive, and with the announced tariff indexation, the difference could be up to $7.
The indexation of Ukrzaliznytsia’s tariffs will either be a lifeline for water transportation on the Danube River or an unbearable dead anchor, the agricultural holding company is confident.
Rizak pointed to the possibility of indexing rail transportation without applying it to routes to/from railway stations near Danube ports.
“This will make it possible to equalize the Danube’s competition with deep-water seaports and stimulate further development of the Danube infrastructure, which has been supported by the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine project and other international donor programs. Thus, Ukraine will ensure sustainable exports without losing money in the event of an aggravation of the security situation in the Black Sea, and international partners will see the real implementation of the European Commission’s decision to build solidarity routes,” Nibulon emphasized.
The French Ambassador highly appreciated the work of Nibulon and expressed his readiness to assist in resolving important issues at the international level.
Nibulon was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, a one-time storage capacity of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
The grain trader is currently operating at 32% of capacity, has set up a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines and had to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
