ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih expects to operate two blast furnaces in 2026, — CEO

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih PJSC’s steel production currently operates two blast furnaces and expects to maintain this level throughout the year. This was announced by Mauro Longobardo, CEO of the company, in an interview with Interfax Ukraine.

According to him, the beginning of 2026 was very difficult in terms of electricity availability, with particularly frequent outages in January.

«Therefore, we were unable to operate both blast furnaces continuously. There were incidents and outages that forced us to safely shut down one of the two furnaces for certain days. Now we are back to operating with two furnaces and hope that we will be able to maintain this level of production throughout the year,» explained the CEO of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.

In particular, in January, one of the complete power outages led to the shutdown of the blast furnace cooling system for at least 3-5 hours. This caused some damage to the tuyeres, some of which were destroyed due to overheating. As a result, the company had to shut down the furnaces and repair all the equipment before restarting them. This shutdown lasted about a week.

The mining department of the company, Mauro Longobardo noted, is currently operating at approximately 75% of its full capacity. According to him, this is currently more than enough for the plant’s steel production, all export deliveries to other subsidiaries of the group in Europe, and export deliveries to China.

«So, this is the volume we are currently counting on, approximately 7.5 million tons of concentrate per year, which is 75% of our full capacity. Before the war, it was approximately one million tons of monthly production capacity,» explained the CEO of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.

As for raw material supplies, the Kryvyi Rih-based company currently purchases coking coal on the international market at market prices – in Australia or the US, to the ports of Pivdennyi or Odesa. However, due to attacks on the ports, there are certain delays in its delivery to AMKR’s coke chemical production.

At the same time, the steel plant now consumes significantly less limestone from ArcelorMittal Beryslav in the Kherson region compared to the pre-war period due to a reduction in iron and steel production relative to pre-invasion volumes.

It should be noted that ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, despite the extremely high risks and restrictions caused by the war, managed to increase production of all types of products last year compared to 2024. However, the company’s results, despite their gradual improvement, are significantly lower than pre-war levels. In particular, steel production last year increased by 2.3% compared to 2024, to 1.69 million tons, pig iron by 16.9% y/y, to 2.53 million tons, and rolled products by 1.4% y/y, to 1.56 million tons.