President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the Mining and Metallurgical Combine PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) for failing to fulfill its commitments to improve the environmental situation in the region and urged to provide targeted financial support to people affected by harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
“If this program has been postponed for five years and not agreed with the citizens, I would like to ask you if you can consider some financial compensation for residents of Kryvy Rih, who have suffered for five years, to help them with treatment? I think that the municipality can help us find a list of people who, unfortunately, fell ill with cancer over the years,” he said at a meeting on the environmental situation in Kryvy Rih and Dnipropetrovsk region in Kryvy Rih on Friday.
According to Zelensky, over the past five years, an average of 25,000 people have appeared in Kryvy Rih, who have had cancer in one form or another.
ARCELORMITTAL, CRITICIZES, ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, KRYVY RIH, ZELENSKY
PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has signed an agreement worth almost $30 million with the Chinese company CISDI for the modernization of the largest blast furnace (No. 9).
According to a press release of the company, the contract includes the development of engineering, the supply of basic equipment, its installation, supervision and training of the metallurgical plant’s personnel.
It is noted that the company has four blast furnaces, of which DP-9 is the largest one, its useful volume exceeds 5,000 cubic meters. It produces about half of all pig iron at the steel plant and is still considered one of the largest in Europe.
The modernization of the furnace will increase its productivity to 10,000 tonnes of pig iron per day using the existing raw materials and up to 12,000 tonnes using sinter and pellets. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plans to produce pellets after the construction of a pelletizing plant (the declared capacity is 4.5-5 million tonnes per year). Both projects are the key ones in the enterprise’s investment program for the renovation and construction of production facilities.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) in 2018 invested over UAH 600 million in environment protection.
According to the company’s press release, environmental measures allow the company to comply with environmental regulations established by law.
At the same time, the press service said that the company annually allocates funds for the implementation of major investment projects, as well as for the repair of fixed assets related to environmental protection. The repairs help to maintain equipment in working condition and not to increase the burden on the environment.
Thus, in 2018, in the metallurgical production units, repairs were made to gas treatment plants of sintering machines No. 1 and No. 5, twin-steel steel-making unit No. 6, converter No. 3. Also, repair work was done on power equipment (combined heat and power plant three, cooling towers, and water lines).
In the mining department in 2018, the modernization of the crushing and ore-dressing plants was actively carried out: the gas-cleaning equipment was reconstructed, slurry pipelines were repaired and pump units were replaced in the slurry workshop. Last year, the company carried out startup works to launch new aspiration units of sections Nos. 4, 5, 6 of the ore-dressing plant No. 1.
In addition, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, when implementing large-scale investment projects, introduces the best available technologies, thanks to which it is possible to gradually reduce the burden on the environment. Major investment projects include the reconstruction of coke-oven batteries Nos. 5 and 6 using a set of environmental measures and an automated environmental monitoring system, the modernization of the sinter shop No. 2, the construction of two new machines for continuous casting of billets and new gas treatment plants and the introduction of an automated eco-monitoring system, reconstruction of ore-dressing plants of the mining department, peak boiler house, tailing dumps and other projects.
From 2006 to 2018, the enterprise invested UAH 6.2 billion in the environment, over 120 gas treatment plants were reconstructed and built, thereby achieving national standards.
PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) in 2018 increased its capital and operating expenses by 31.6% compared to 2017, to $443.4 million from $337 million.
According to a press release of the company, $348.8 million were capital investments, $94.6 million were operating costs.
In 2019, the company intends to invest more than $450 million.
At the same time, the press service clarifies that one of the key projects in 2018 is the construction of two new continuous casting machines worth about $144 million. Hot tests of one of the continuous casting machines will begin in February of this year. It is also planned to complete the reconstruction of small section mill No. 250-4 in spring, the volume of investments in it will be about $55 million.
Lakshmi Mittal, the chairman and CEO of the world’s largest steelmaking company ArcelorMittal, says that the economic situation in Ukraine has stabilized, which now allows Ukraine’s largest steelmaker РJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih to operate successfully and continue to make investments in its economy.
“At present, the situation in Ukraine is stable. And our enterprise ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has been operating smoothly,” Mittal told Interfax-Ukraine at the General Assembly of the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), which opened in Tokyo on Monday. At the same time, he was unable to comment when asked about his estimate of a decent wage for steelworkers in Kryvyi Rih who have been trying to have it raised up to EUR 1,000 a month and which currently is about a half of that figure.
“I have no idea about a wage for steelworkers in Kryvyi Rih. All this depends on the companies involved and the situation within them,” Mittal said. He refrained from any comments regarding his company’s capabilities and timeframes for raising wages for steelworkers employed by ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
As was reported earlier, employees of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih held a press conference on March 27, 2018 to make public their demands to their management, in particular, about raising wages up to EUR 1,000 a month from April 1, securing the safety conditions at work, and preventing any ungrounded cutting of jobs there.
PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has extended its wagon fleet by 2.5 times, commissioning 450 new high-sided wagons received under a financial leasing scheme. According to a press release of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, at the beginning of 2018 the enterprise received 50 new cars: thus, this year the company has commissioned 500 wagons to transport its metal products and supply raw materials to the plant.
At the same time, it is noted that as a result its own fleet has increased by 2.5 times, which allows the company to carry out about 10-15% of its transportation independently, regardless of the situation in the railway market and the availability of wagons. This will help reduce the cost of delivering outgoing and incoming goods, as well as give an opportunity to consider new directions of metal products and iron ore concentrate transportation for exports.
All new wagons for the enterprise are manufactured by PJSC Dniprovahonmash, which is one of the participants in the signed agreement under the scheme of financial leasing.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of steel goods in Ukraine. It specializes in production of long goods, in particular, fittings and wire rod.
