Metinvest generated $1.3 billion in foreign currency earnings in the first nine months of this year and has significant potential to increase exports, says company chief financial officer Yulia Dankova.
“The very first factor contributing to the development of the company’s export capabilities and the growth of foreign exchange earnings is the safe shipment of products across the Black Sea,” she said during the Export Credit Forum 2023. “We must have a constant possibility of receiving ships, insurance for these ships, and the possibility of cooperation with financial institutions, so that the opportunity to receive funds would be not after passing the Bosphorus or Suez, but as before – after loading the products onto the ship.”
The second factor is the possibility of obtaining financing for small and medium-sized Ukrainian companies that consume Metinvest’s metal products, so that they can export products and have a stable cash flow, Kallanish notes.
“Then we, as suppliers, will be protected. This will also contribute to the growth of export volumes and foreign exchange earnings in Ukraine,” Dankova noted. “Another condition for the growth of foreign exchange earnings is the solution to the issue of customs clearance of goods in transit through European countries. Ukraine should join European initiatives to develop a computerised transit system.”
Expanding the range of non-commodity product groups according to KVED codes supported by the Export Credit Agency could increase the company’s export capabilities. “The list of metal products covers only pipes and does not contain flat and long products – products with high added value,” says the cfo.
Metinvest’s operations have been hampered by a lack of personnel. Business, together with the state, must become a reliable partner for Western consumers even in war conditions, she added.
Earlier, Metinvest said that its steel enterprises are operating at 65-75% of their capacity as of November (see Kallanish passim). The company’s mining and processing plants are operating at 35-40% of their capacity, but ore shipments to Europe are significantly lower than pre-war due to high costs for transportation.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
