Electricity cost and tariffs force Ingulets Mining to continue downtime

Ingulets Mining and Processing Plant (Ingulets GOK), a part of Metinvest Group, continues to be idle due to high electricity costs and tariff factors. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine with reference to the company’s press service.

Ingulets GOK stopped operations in the summer of 2024. Among the reasons for the company’s downtime are the high cost of electricity and its delivery, high railway tariffs for the delivery of products to the port (in dollar terms, it is 1.5 times higher than in 2019-2021), and the cost of port dues (they are more than 2 times higher than in similar ports in Europe). In addition, a significant excise tax in the price of diesel accounts for almost a quarter of the cost of fuel. At the same time, mining dump trucks do not use the roads that should be repaired with this fee.

Due to these factors, Ingulets GOK is unable to ensure competitive production costs in its target export markets.

The company also noted that while Ingulets GOK was operating, the plant provided significant amounts of taxes (in the first half of 2024, tax deductions amounted to about UAH 1.1 billion), hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine, and created jobs both at the enterprise and in related industries.

To restore the company’s production, the government must pursue a balanced tariff and fiscal policy, Metinvest’s press service said. Local communities, state monopolies, and the state itself all lose from the suspension of operations.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Ukraine’s iron ore industry was in a critical situation at the end of the first quarter. The unfavorable situation on foreign markets was compounded by internal subjective factors. In January-March 2025, the domestic mining sector reduced iron ore exports by 5.7% compared to the same period in 2024.