“Metinvest” company, which belongs to Rinat Akhmetov, recorded a significant decrease in production indicators in the first half of 2024. According to an official report published on the company’s website, the decline in ore, coal and flat-rolled production was the result of several factors, including Russian shelling, high prices for imported electricity and a global drop in demand for iron ore products.
Due to Russian shelling, from mid-March 2024, Ukraine has seen limited electricity production. This, in turn, increased the demand and cost of imported electricity, which affected the operation of the group’s mining and processing plants. The company noted that it is forced to distribute the load of its plants depending on the availability and cost of electricity, market prices for iron ore products and other factors to ensure production efficiency.
In the second quarter of 2024, production of total iron ore concentrate decreased by 17% compared to the previous quarter, to 4.033 million tons. Production volumes of marketable iron ore products fell by 13% and amounted to 3.814 million tons, and production of iron ore concentrate decreased by 22% to 2.205 million tons.
Coal concentrate production in the first half of 2024 fell by 31% compared to the same period in 2023, to 2.085 million tons. This decrease occurred, in particular, due to the reduction of production by the Pokrovsk coal group.
The production of flat rolled products decreased by 6% compared to the same period last year and amounted to 545 thousand tons. The main reason was a decrease in the number of orders for hot-rolled coil. At the same time, the production of galvanized cold-rolled coils increased by 2.3 times due to the resumption of operation of the 4th inductor at Unisteel in Ukraine after major repairs.
