Central Mining reduced the production of pellets by 3% y/y in January-November 2022

In January-November 2022, the Central Mining and Processing Plant (Central GOK) reduced the production of commercial pellets by 3% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 2 million tons. This is stated in the press release of Metinvest.Media.

“Thanks to coordinated actions, the collective of the combine fulfilled 100% of the planned indicators for production and processing of products. Only in 11 months of this year, miners extracted more than 9 million tons of iron ore, concentrators produced more than 3 million tons of concentrate, and pulverizers produced almost 2 million tons of high-quality pellets,” the report says.

This year was a period of trials for Central GOK, with which the team coped well. Despite the war, logistical problems and economic challenges, the company remains one of the best in the mining industry of Ukraine.

“The plant continued the production of high-quality products this year as well – concentrate with an iron content of 70% and above and pellets with an iron content of 67.5%. This influenced the fact that the company remained with orders during a difficult period and was able to work, fulfilling its obligations to customers and providing work to its employees,” reports the Central Bank of Ukraine.

The collective of the combine continues to update the production facilities in the workshops of the enterprise. Specialists carried out a major overhaul of the equipment of the clod factory and the OK-324 roasting machine. At the crushing plant, the coarse crusher and the conveyor transport were repaired. The updated equipment is ready to receive an additional 4.5 million tons of munitions.

In order to support heavy-duty transport, heavy-duty dump trucks were repaired during the year in the mine transport workshops of the plant. Tracks were restored for safe and efficient operation of railway transport.

Also, in 2022, the enterprise fully implemented the environmental measures of the city program – it systematically introduced green technologies in sanitary protection zones and at the tailings storage facility, and greened industrial sites.

“The team of Central GOK is an example of indomitability and reliability. During this year, our specialists have shown that they are able to support each other and our common cause. Today we understand how important the work of the enterprise is for the economy of Ukraine and how important it is to be humane and friendly outside of production,” said the CEO of the Central GOK Dmytro Shevchyk.

As GMK Center reported earlier, at the end of June 2022, Metinvest announced the suspension of operations at the Southern, Ingulets and Northern mining and processing plants. Southern, Ingulets will be suspended from July 1st, and Nothern – from mid-July.

The company explains this decision through challenging logistics, high costs of steel production and external factors, namely significant drop in iron and steel prices and reduction in demand for raw materials.

Also, from July 1, the capacity of Kametstal was reduced to one blast furnace. Only Central GOK continued to operate, but with reduced capacity. On November 4, the company announced the recovery of the Southern GOK’s works after four months of downtime.

Central mining and processing plant is one of the five largest producers of iron ore in Ukraine. It produces concentrate with Fe content of 65% and 68.2%, as well as pellets with Fe content of 63.9%. In 2021 Central mining and processing plant reduced the production of iron ore concentrate by 2.1% to 4.8 million tons and the production of pellets by 0.5% to 2.26 million tons.