Metinvest has identified priority investment areas for 2024-2025

Metinvest Group has identified priority areas for investment in 2024-2025, including employees, equipment and assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was stated by the company’s Chief Operating Officer Olexander Myronenko during the discussion “The largest wartime investors: a look into the future” at the Forbes Ukraine forum “Money for Victory”.

According to him, in 2022-2023, Metinvest invested UAH 23 billion in the modernization of Kametstal and Zaporizhstal steel plants and the green transformation of its enterprises.

«We have three key priorities. The first is our teams. The second is equipment and production sites. And the third is to support the Armed Forces. Especially in the cities where our enterprises are located. These are Zaporizhzhia and Pokrovsk, located 40 kilometers from the front line. And we must support the units that defend these cities,” said Olexander Mironenko.

Over the current year, Metinvest plans to invest $320 million in capital and about $350 million in operating investments in equipment and work sites.

“These are investments aimed at maintaining our equipment: repairs of blast furnaces and sinter machines, maintenance of equipment at mining and processing plants and development of mine management in Pokrovsk,” added the company’s COO.

Currently, the group’s enterprises are operating at 65-70% of their capacity, and after the end of hostilities and full restoration of infrastructure, production volumes will need to be increased. To this end, the equipment is being prepared for loading in advance.

The company has already spent more than UAH 6 billion on humanitarian and military support for Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. Currently, Metinvest allocates about UAH 200 million a month to build fortifications and support brigades from Dnipro to Donetsk.

«We have a clear strategy for the development of our Ukrainian and foreign enterprises. It is currently very difficult to persuade banks to finance any projects in Ukraine. We estimate the full transition of Ukrainian enterprises to green metallurgy within 10 years after the end of the war at about $9 billion,” said the Metinvest COO.

He added that the company would not be able to implement such a project on its own and would need to attract external financing. Since this option is currently not possible, Metinvest is considering a joint project with Danieli to build a steel plant in Italy, with an estimated investment of about $2 billion.

At the same time, the company’s work is currently negatively affected by the mobilization of personnel, as one in six employees serves in the Armed Forces.

«This is a big challenge in relations with the state. And it has a bigger impact on our business than any commercial disputes,” he said.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in the first quarter of 2024, the company reduced steel production by 5% compared to the previous quarter – to 469 thousand tons. Pig iron production amounted to 403 thousand tons, down 5% q/q, iron ore concentrate – 4.86 million tons (+36% q/q), coal concentrate – 1.09 million tons (-4% q/q), and coke – 283 thousand tons (-3% q/q).