ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plans $130 million in capital investments for 2023

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plans $130 million in capital investments for the current year. This was reported by the CEO of the enterprise Mauro Longobardo during communication with the team and department heads, writes corporate newspaper Metalurg.

In 2022, the production capacities of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih were loaded by no more than 20-25%, and a significant net loss was recorded. At the same time, the steel plant received financial aid from the ArcelorMittal Corporation in the amount of more than $600 million. These funds were necessary to prolong the payment of wages and continue work despite the difficulty of purchasing raw materials, their high cost and other factors.

The company also suffered additional losses due to logistics complications and hopes to rectify the situation in 2023.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih faces the task of further reducing obsolete assets until the end of 2023.

“Ukraine is working to meet EU conditions on many issues. And it is already clear that Ukraine will go through this path much faster than expected. Our company is also accelerating in many directions. After the war and the return of production to pre-war capacity, the company plans to invest in the modernization of the enterprise and implement the latest production technologies,” Longobardo noted.

According to him, for the current year, the company plans to allocate $130 million for capital investments. The main area of ​​renewal will be the construction of the «Third map» tailings storage facility. Other projects will continue – this is the completion of works on the construction of the «Fourth map» and «Myrolyubivske» tailings storage facilities. Special attention will be paid to the project for the construction of a clod factory, work on which was suspended due to the war.

In steel production, relining of blast furnace №9 is planned, work on its modernization will continue. In fact, it will be the construction of a new tenth blast furnace, the CEO of the company noted. It is also planned to increase production in the converter shop, improve the work of the continuous casting machines at the coke-chemical production, in the agglomeration shop №2, etc.

“Now we have time to prepare well, and then work hard to increase and stabilize production and implement all capital investment plans,” Longobardo noted.

As Volodymyr Teslyuk, deputy CEO for production (mining department), noted, the mining and processing plant of the enterprise already shipped 140,000 tons of iron ore concentrate with an iron content of 68% in March 2023. The same volume with an iron content of 65% is currently being shipped to Poland.

“Our colleagues from Poland and the steelmakers of our enterprise need more and more concentrate. And we must be ready to meet all these needs,” he noted.

According to Teslyuk, in general, since the beginning of 2023, all planned production indicators of the department have been exceeded. He also reported that the LMZ foundry has started producing grinding layers for the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih iron ore processing plants, which were previously purchased from Azovstal.

As GMK Center reported earlier, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih reduced the production of rolled products by 76.1% compared to 2021 – to 1.1 million tons. In 2022, the production of pig iron decreased by 70% compared to 2021 – to 1.6 million tons, and steel – by 75.6%, to 1.2 million tons. The production of iron ore by the mining and prossecing plant of the enterprise decreased by 56.1% y/y – to 11.6 million tons. Concentrate production for the year amounted to 4.5 million tons, which is 59.1% less year-on-year.