ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih forecasts a decrease in tax payments in 2026

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih PJSC in 2026 expects a reduction in tax deductions on its part due to high energy costs and the loss of the European market. This was stated by the company’s CEO Mauro Longobardo in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

In 2025, AMKR increased its tax and fee payments to budgets at all levels by almost 28% compared to 2024, to UAH 8.5 billion. According to the CEO of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, last year’s increase was due to the company’s presence in the EU market, which had been developed over three years.

Last year, the Kryvyi Rih steel plant sold 920,000 tons of products to the European Union, but the absence of any exceptions or transition period for CBAM is leading to a loss of European orders.

«This year, we believe that this volume will be halved. There were no deliveries in the first quarter, so losses amount to 25%. We have not received any orders for the second quarter either. The most positive scenario would be if we could sell half of last year’s volume. As a result, tax payments cannot remain the same, as we have not found buyers for such volumes. And this is a big problem,» explained Mauro Longobardo.

He added that Europe has essentially opened its doors to allow Ukraine to replace lost markets. If the European market is lost, AMKR will not be able to return to its old markets due to a lack of competitiveness in many areas, such as logistics difficulties.

«The only solution is explosive growth in the domestic market if the war ends, which will lead to large-scale reconstruction and rebuilding. However, even this will not be able to replace 1 million tons of European volumes,» believes Mauro Longobardo.

It should be noted that ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is seeing a further deterioration in the situation with energy and logistics costs, which continues to put pressure on the production economy. Electricity remains a key problem for the plant, not only because of its high cost but also because of the instability of supply.