ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih claims economic pressure from Ukrainian Railways

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest mining and metals company and one of the main foreign investors, has expressed concern over changes to the plan of Ukrainian Railways to form trains heading to the Odesa Commercial Sea Port. This was reported to GMK Center by the company’s press service.

Starting from April 5, 2025, according to the new plan, the tariff distance for the transportation of the company’s products has increased by 257 km, which significantly increases logistics costs. The company emphasizes that such a decision is artificial, selective and unreasonable, as it actually applies exclusively to ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, which supplies more than 100,000 tons of products to Odesa every month.

The company emphasizes that it has been working in difficult wartime conditions for three years now, under constant shelling, with a shortage of energy supply and complicated export logistics. The partial reopening of ports in 2023 helped to partially stabilize operations, but the company is still unprofitable.

“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih considers any manifestations of abuse of monopoly position unacceptable and is ready to appeal to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on this issue. We hope for an objective review of Ukrzaliznytsia’s decision. A positive resolution of this issue will help us avoid unreasonable costs, increase the delivery time of cargoes, and increase the competitiveness of our products in the mining and metals sector as a whole,” said Olexander Bilyansky, Deputy CEO for Supply.

As GMK Center reported earlier, despite the challenges, the company continues to develop. In early April, blast furnace No. 6, which was mothballed in the fall of 2024 due to the market crisis and high electricity tariffs, was restarted. The unit is currently reaching its planned capacity of 3.4 thousand tons of pig iron per day. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is also raising employee salaries by an average of 15% starting May 1, 2025.

In 2024, the company managed to increase production of all types of products compared to 2023. In particular, pig iron production increased by 42.7% y/y – to 2.17 million tons, and steel production increased by 69.9% y/y – to 1.65 million tons. Rolled steel output amounted to 1.53 million tons, up 72.1% y/y.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is a full-cycle steel plant in Ukraine. Its production facilities are designed to produce over 6 million tons of steel, 5 million tons of rolled products and 5.5 million tons of pig iron annually. The company employs over 20 thousand people.