Metinvest eyes exports via Poland, Romania

Metinvest is working on new export routes to ship steel products to Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted logistics, the company tells Kallanish.

“There have already been the first attempts to build logistics through the ports of the Baltic and Romania,” the steelmaker’s general director, Yury Ryzhenkov, said during a working trip to the group’s enterprises. “Already in April we are loading a ship in Constanta and Swinoujscie and we will try to develop this further. I hope we will be able to resolve these logistical issues; then the company will be able to utilise the Kryvyi Rih enterprises at 100% versus the current 40%.”

“We are also developing new products and are providing employment for the evacuated Metinvest specialists in order to keep the team together,” he adds.

Metinvest subsidiary Kametstal is currently operating. Two blast furnaces have meanwhile been launched in Zaporizhstal, which are currently operating at 50%, and the company is deciding on how to launch another one in the near future.

Earlier this month, fellow Ukrainian steelmaker ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih started negotiations with the Polish government over using Poland’s Baltic Sea ports to export steel produced in Ukraine (see Kallanish passim).

Metinvest representatives said earlier the group’s two main Mariupol plants – Azovstal and Ilyich Steelworks – have been badly damaged due to fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Those assets accounted for about 30-40% of steel capacity in Ukraine. The group also stated that its Mariupol plants would never operate under Russian occupation.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria