Day: 11 November 2021

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR) is experiencing difficulties in providing coking coal for coke production and pulverized coal preparation, the company tells Kallanish.

“The situation is not easy, but in general, we are coping with supplies, and this situation did not affect the production of iron and steel,” confirms the firm’s press office. “Since November, we have started purchasing coal from the Czech Republic, which will also allow us to diversify our risks. We hope that logistics tensions will subside from this month.”

AMKR did not specify the volumes of coking coal shipments from the Czech Republic.

In January-October, the Ukrainian steelmaker increased coke output by 13.4% on-year to 2.45 million tonnes, the company says. In October alone it produced 230,000t.

According to AMKR, it is difficult to assess how much the company will be affected by suspended supplies from Kazakhstan, following the deadly incident at its ArcelorMittal Temirtau sister company. Kazakh authorities will inspect all of Temirtau’s mines after the death of six miners at its Abayskaya coking coal mine due to a methane explosion.

Earlier, another Ukrainian steelmaker, Metinvest, also reported difficulties with the supply of coal and the production of coke at its enterprises. The company’s third-quarter coke production fell 9% on-quarter to 1.09mt and 3% on-year in the nine months to 3.46mt, mainly due to a decrease in production at Avdiivka Coke.

Merchant coke production decreased 15% on-quarter to 400,000t and 8% on-year in the nine months to 1.39mt.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria

The automotive industry continues to suffer from semiconductor supply chain difficulties, with supply unlikely to ease before the middle of the next business year, says vostalpine chief executive Herbert Eibensteiner.

“However, it is important to note in this regard that the decrease in automotive production does not stem from a weakness in demand,” Eibensteiner told Kallanish during an online conference on Wednesday.

According to him, it is to expected that due to chip supply problems some areas will see a time lag in order call-ups for voestalpine’s products. “Our North American and Asian facilities were affected much less by the lack of semiconductors than the European ones,” Eibensteiner added.

Demand from the construction, mechanical engineering and consumer goods industries for voestalpine group’s products remains high. The company expects the railways segment to continue delivering good performance despite the usual seasonal weakening.

The energy sector has rebounded substantially of late, and this trend should continue throughout the second half of the business year 2021/22, the enterprise claims. Aerospace, too, is showing signs of a recovery.

Voestalpine also highlighted its efforts for future research into green hydrogen, in projects such as H2FUTURE at the site in Linz, and SuSteel in Leoben-Donawitz. The enterprise is also developing its “greentec steel” programme to decarbonise steel production from coal-based blast furnace production to EAFs.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria