Metinvest to invest $1.2 billion to boost air and steel coil quality

Ukrainian mining steel group Metinvest will invest $1.2 billion in a modernization program this year to, among other things, boost coil quality and replace 1 million mt/year of imported flat rolled steel products, the company said Feb.16.

This year, Metinvest will continue installing new cold-rolling, galvanizing and color-coating facilities at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, southern Ukraine. The company broke ground on this $1 billion project in 2021, and once completed, it will enable the steelmaker to replace 1 million mt/year of cold-rolled and coated coil imports with quality domestic analogues.

Aside from import replacement, air quality and education are the other core focus areas of the company’s 2021 capital expenditures.

The reconstruction of the dedusting systems of the basic oxygen furnace shop at slab and plate producer Azovstal Iron & Steel Works, also in Mariupol, that will be done in phases during 2022-23, represents a $180 million investment – the largest with an environmental aspect in Metinvest history, the company said.

This year Metinvest also plans to complete the reconstruction of the gas cleaning plants at the casthouse of blast furnace No.4 and the construction of the air separation unit at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, also in Mariupol.

Some of the gas cleaning systems at Severny iron ore mining and beneficiating complex (GOK) in Dnipropetrovsk region will be rebuilt too.

In 2021, Metinvest upgraded gas cleaning facilities servicing blast furnace No. 5 at the Ilyich mill, introduced cyclic-flow technology at Severny and Ingulets GOKs.

Last year, it broke ground on Metinvest Polytechnic, which would be Ukraine’s first private technical university. The steelmaker has allocated Eur30 million ($34 million) to create this institution.

“Metinvest has demonstrated the highest level of patriotism by investing a record amount of money in the industrial development in Ukraine,” company CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov said in a statement. Last year, the company invested over $1 billion in projects that make Ukrainian industry more modern, competitive and environmentally friendly, he added.

— Ekaterina Bouckley