ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plans to increase capacity utilization to 50%

The company intends to load the mining division to the maximum and start up the second blast furnace

In 2024, PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plans to increase the utilization of its iron and steel divisions by improving maritime logistics. This was stated by the company’s CEO Mauro Longobardo in an interview with Delo.ua.

«In 2024, we plan to increase production as we have good news about the opening of maritime logistics. I won’t go into details, but the Black Sea ports are available for our type of products – iron ore concentrate, pig iron and rolled metal,» he said.

The company plans to maximize the capacity of its mining division and launch two blast furnaces in the second quarter of this year, in April, to start the steel division.

«This is about 50% of our pre-war capacity. We did not want to launch the second furnace earlier because there was a risk of attacks on the energy infrastructure. Such attacks did happen. In early February, the Russians attacked the infrastructure of Kryvyi Rih district, and we had a complete blackout. It took us 10 days to fully resume our operations. Thus, the decision to wait with the launch of the second blast furnace was a wise one,» added Mauro Longobardo.

The plant is currently operating at 25% of its full capacity.

According to the company’s CEO, although the sea route has been opened for the company’s products, this logistics chain is quite expensive for shippers.

«We are currently paying double the freight rate. The owners of ships entering our ports take money for risk, and the crews also receive a risk premium. We also see a price trend: since the beginning of the corridor, prices were 3-4 times higher, and now they are twice as high. We are moving downward and hope that prices will go down without incidents and traffic will increase,» Longobardo comments.

As GMK Center reported earlier, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih increased steel production by 23% year-on-year – to 76 thousand tons in January 2024. Rolled steel production for the month increased by 26% m/m – to 72 thousand tons, pig iron by 10% m/m – to 149 thousand tons, iron ore concentrate by 41% m/m – to 552 thousand tons, and coke by 9% m/m – to 85 thousand tons.

The year 2023 was a challenging one for ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, which produced 1 million tons of steel, 1.5 million tons of pig iron and 0.9 million tons of commercial rolled products. However, the most important thing is that the company continues to operate, contributing to the Ukrainian economy during the war, and maintains its production facilities in order to increase production as soon as possible if the situation improves.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is a full-cycle steelmaking enterprise 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.