“Metinvest reduced steel production by 43% year-on-year to 1.531 million tons in January-September this year, according to a press release from the parent company Metinvest B.V. on Wednesday, following the results of the third quarter and nine months of this year.
During this period, pig iron production decreased by 46% to 1.344 million tons, coke production by 31% to 948 thousand tons, and commercial coke production increased by 7% to 644 thousand tons.
At the same time, it is noted that due to the outbreak of Russia’s large-scale military aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Metinvest decided to suspend production at a number of its enterprises in Mariupol, Avdiivka and Zaporizhzhia, including Azovstal, Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol, Avdiivka Coke and Zaporizhzhia Coke. Later, Zaporizhzhia-based enterprises of the Group resumed production.
As of today, the Group’s Ukrainian enterprises, except for those located in Mariupol and Avdiivka, continue to operate at varying levels of utilization, taking into account security, electricity supply, logistics and economic factors.
In the third quarter of 2023, pig iron production decreased by 10% quarter-on-quarter to 425 thousand tons, mainly due to the shutdown of blast furnace No. 1 at Kametstal for a scheduled overhaul. As a result, steel production decreased by 8% to 499 thousand tons. Over the first nine months of the year, the Group’s iron and steel production decreased by 46% and 43%. The suspension of production at the Mariupol plants from the end of February 2022 was partially offset by volumes at Kametstal.
In the third quarter, the Group produced 159 thousand tonnes of semi-finished products, down 27% quarter-on-quarter, mainly due to higher domestic consumption at downstream stages.
In addition, in the first nine months of 2023, the output of semi-finished products decreased by 26% to 657 thousand tons due to the absence of production at Mariupol plants since the end of February 2022. This was partially offset by an increase in the production of commercial billets at Kametstal’s facilities.
In the third quarter, Metinvest’s output of finished products decreased by 3% quarter-on-quarter to 583 thousand tons. At the same time, flat products production decreased by 27 thousand tons to 267 thousand tons due to a reduction in the order book at the rolling mills in Italy and the UK. This was partially offset by an increase in galvanized cold-rolled coil production at Unisteel Ukraine as the fourth inductor was restarted after being shut down for overhaul in the second quarter.
At the same time, long products production increased by 9 thousand tons to 316 thousand tons, mainly due to an increase in the rebar order book at Kametstal.
In the first nine months of 2023, finished product output fell by 26% to 1.728 million tons. At the same time, flat products production decreased by 666 thousand tons to 847 thousand tons due to the shutdown of Mariupol’s plants. This was partially offset by an increase in hot-rolled plates production at re-rolling mills in Italy and the UK as third-party slab supplies were restored.
In turn, long products output increased by 72 thousand tonnes to 881 thousand tonnes due to the stabilization of billet production at Kametstal and normalization of supplies to Promet Steel in Bulgaria.
There was no output of rail and pipe products as they were produced at Mariupol-based plants.
Coke production in the third quarter decreased by 9% quarter-on-quarter to 299 thousand tons, mainly due to lower coke demand at Kametstal. Over the first nine months of the year, this figure fell by 31% to 948 thousand tons due to the suspension of production at Azovstal and Avdiivka Coke.
As reported earlier, in January-March 2023, Metinvest reduced steel production by 75% compared to the same period in 2022 to 491 thousand tons, pig iron production also by 75% to 448 thousand tons, and coke production by 59% to 318 thousand tons, including a 1% increase in commercial coke production to 213 thousand tons.
In the first half of 2023, the Group reduced steel production by 57% year-on-year to 1.032 million tonnes, pig iron by 59% to 918 thousand tonnes, and coke by 40% to 648 thousand tonnes, including a 7% increase in commercial coke production to 429 thousand tonnes.
“In 2022, Metinvest decreased steel production by 69% compared to 2021, to 2.918 million tons, pig iron by 72%, to 2.743 million tons, coke by 64%, to 1.653 million tons, including commercial coke by 49%, to 811 thousand tons.
“Metinvest comprises mining and metallurgical enterprises located in Ukraine, Europe and the USA.
Metinvest’s major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
In January-October this year, Ukrainian steelmakers cut production of total rolled products by 13% year-on-year to 4.365 million tons, according to preliminary data.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, steel production decreased by 11.7% year-on-year to 5.162 million tons in the first ten months of this year, down to 5.7 million tons in January-October 2022.
Pig iron production during this period decreased by 15.6% to 4.906 million tons.
As reported, in 9M2023, Ukraine reduced production of total rolled products by 17% year-on-year to 3.929 million tons, steel by 16.9% to 4.590 million tons, and pig iron by 19.5% to 4.394 million tons.
In 2022, the country’s steelmaking companies reduced production of total rolled products by 72% year-on-year to 5.350 million tons, steel by 70.7% to 6.263 million tons, and pig iron by 69.8% to 6.391 million tons.
In 2021, the company produced 21.165 million tons of pig iron (103.6% compared to 2020), 21.366 million tons of steel (103.6%), and 19.079 million tons of rolled products (103.5%).
In January-September this year, Ukrainian steelmakers cut production of total rolled products by 17% year-on-year to 3.929 million tons, according to preliminary data.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, steel production in the first nine months of this year decreased by 16.9% compared to January-September 2022, to 4.590 million tons.
Pig iron production during this period decreased by 19.5% to 4.394 million tons.
As reported, in 2022, Ukraine reduced production of total rolled products by 72% year-on-year to 5.350 million tons, steel by 70.7% to 6.263 million tons, and pig iron by 69.8% to 6.391 million tons.
In 2021, the company produced 21.165 million tons of pig iron (103.6% compared to 2020), 21.366 million tons of steel (103.6%), and 19.079 million tons of rolled products (103.5%).
Metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine in April this year increased steel production by 2.04 times compared to the same period last year – up to 574 thousand tons from 281 thousand tons.
In March 2023 it was smelted 527 thousand tons of steel.
In this case, Ukraine took 22nd place in the ranking of 63 countries – the world’s main producers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
According to Worldsteel, in April 2023 recorded a decline in steel production to April 2022 in most of the top ten countries, except India, South Korea, Russia and Iran.
The top ten steel-producing countries in April are as follows: China (92.640 million tons, down 1.5% on April-2022), India (10.721 million tons, up 3.2%), Japan (7.239 million tons, “minus” 3.1%), USA (6.586 million tons, “minus” 5.3%), RF (6.380 million tons, “plus” 1.9%), South Korea (5,689 mln tons, more by 3%), Germany (3,197 mln tons, decreasing by 3,8%), Iran (3,063 mln tons, increasing by 5,9%), Brazil (2,773 mln tons, minus 5,9%) and Turkey (2,678 mln tons, less by 20,6%).
Overall, steel production in April this year decreased by 2.4% compared to the same period last year to 161.377 million tons.
For the four months of 2023, the top ten steel-producing countries are as follows: China (354.390 million tons, up 4.1%), India (43.897 million tons, up 3%), Japan (28.861 million tons, down 5.3%), USA (26.061 million tons, down 4.1%), Russia (25.094 million tons, down 0.6%), South Korea (22.355 million tons, minus 0.4%), Germany (12.354 million tons, down 5.9%), Brazil (10.585 million tons, minus 8.8%), Turkey (10.1 million tons, down 21.3%) and Iran (9.710 million tons, up 0.1%).
A total of 63 countries produced 622.736 million tons of steel in January-April, which is 0.3% less than during the same period in 2022.
In this case, Ukraine produced 1.809 million tons of steel, which is 2.2 times, or 54% less than in January-April 2022. Is in 25th place at the end of four months-2023.
As reported, at the end of 2022, the top ten steel producing countries were as follows: China (1.013 billion tons, down 2.1%), India (124.720 million tons, up 5.5%), Japan (89.235 million tons, down 7.4%), USA (80.715 million tons, down 5.9%), Russia (71.5 million tons, down 7.2%), South Korea (65, 865 million tons, down 6.5%), Germany (36.849 million tons, down 8.4%), Turkey (35.134 million tons, down 12.9%), Brazil (33.972 million tons, down 5.8%) and Iran (30.593 million tons, up 8%).
In 2022, Ukraine ranked 23rd with the production of 6.263 million tons of steel (“minus” 70.7%).
In total, 64 countries produced 1 billion 831.467 million tons of steel in 2022, which is 4.3% less than in 2021.
Mining and Metallurgical Group Metinvest intends to participate in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine together with the Ukrainian government and Italian business, the company’s CEO Yuri Ryzhenkov said at the April 26 conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine held in Rome with the participation of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal and Italian Council of Ministers Chairman Giorgi Meloni.
According to a press release Friday, during the discussion, Denis Shmygal noted that Ukraine looks forward to Italy’s participation in joint infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing and commercial projects to restore Ukraine from the effects of the war.
“The hundreds of Italian and Ukrainian companies, businesses, associations that are here today are a signal that we have a common interest in the reconstruction projects that, in particular, the president of Ukraine described today. We invite Italian companies to invest in Ukraine and implement reconstruction projects today”, – he said.
The Prime Minister added that Ukraine counts on 1 billion euros from the Italian agency SACE to urgently finance the reconstruction of energy, housing, humanitarian demining, critical and social infrastructure, support for small and medium businesses.
In his turn Yuriy Ryzhenkov said at the specialized metallurgical panel during the conference that Metinvest as a potential steel supplier considers the issues of strategic partnership with Italian companies in Ukraine. In particular, we are talking about cooperation in transport infrastructure (roads, bridges, seaports), energy infrastructure (production and supply of energy), social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, other public institutions).
“Ukraine has lost production of rails and slabs because of the destroyed factories in Mariupol. On the one hand, this is a problem because Italy was a major consumer of Ukrainian slabs. But on the other hand, it is an opportunity for Ukraine’s recovery, as these are the most obvious areas that require investment. One of the first drafts of Ukraine recovery plan, published last year, already contains initiatives in which Italian business may take part. And this is where Metinvest is ready to cooperate with it to implement the plan for Ukraine’s recovery,” the top manager, as quoted by the press service, stressed.
Moreover, Metinvest, in partnership with Italian companies, seeks to improve the technological level of metallurgical production in Ukraine and become part of the green transformation of the European industry. In particular, the matter concerns expansion of DR-okatysh production, the basic raw material for more environmentally friendly metallurgical production with the usage of electric arc furnaces. “Metinvest is considering a partnership with DRI d’Italia, a joint project of InvItalia and CEIP Scarl, a consortium of electric arc furnace steel producers.
However participation in these projects will require additional investments in production capacities. For example, modernization of some of the enterprises and construction of new facilities will require about $6 billion according to the National Recovery Plan developed and presented in mid-2022. Promising investment projects include modernization of iron ore processing technology and construction of DR-forming lines, construction of electric arc furnace facilities and new rolling mills.
In his speech at the conference, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine has significant potential for the development of green metallurgy. “From iron ore to lithium and other resources that are in maximum demand by the world – all of it is Ukraine. From natural gas to titanium… We can give – and we will! – all that to global markets. In many ways we can replace companies from Russia – those who have chosen to work for war rather than for global development,” he said.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine – in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in European countries.
The major shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that manage it together.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest group.
Metinvest’s network of steel service centers in Ukraine, Metinvest-SMC, has donated steel to the Pivden Operational Command as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative to manufacture mobile buggy vehicles, which are in high demand at the frontline.
According to the press release, a buggy is a small light vehicle with high cross-country ability with open wheels, used for off-road driving. There are no such vehicles in service in Ukraine. Activists, volunteers and representatives of some military associations manufacture and supply them.
It is noted that buggies are compact, fast, maneuverable, have high cross-country ability and are easily camouflaged. They are relatively inexpensive and are indispensable in reconnaissance missions, able to attack in small groups and make quick raids behind enemy lines. That is why the buggy is a good alternative to a conventional wheeled vehicle on the front lines.
Metinvest-SMC was recently approached by representatives of the UC Pivden: the military needed equipment for the production of buggies. At their request the company provided 3.8 tons of rolled metal – angles, sheets, and tubes – for the manufacture of 10 front minivans, free of charge.
According to the press service, everyone can also help the defenders of Ukraine: if there are any unused old Zhiguli 01-07 cars, they can be transferred to the AFU (Operational Command South in FB or e-mail coll-centr_ok_pivden@post.mil.gov.ua).
It is recalled that Metinvest group has already allocated 1.6 billion UAH for the projects of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative.
“Metinvest” is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its main shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of Metinvest group.
