Metinvest increased steel production by 9% in 2020

Over the year, the Group also ramped up production of pig iron and iron ore concentrate

In 2020, Metinvest B.V., the Metinvest Group’s parent company, increased steel production by 9% to 8.27 million tons compared to 2019, according to the report of the parent company Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands), published on its official website.

In 2020, Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol (Ilyich Steel) increased steel production by 14% to 4.07 million tons compared to 2019. Azovstal increased production by 4% to 4.19 million tons.

According to the report, crude steel production rose by 9% mainly due to production increase at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works due to a reallocation of pig iron to steelmaking. Azovstal increased output on the back of greater pig iron production.

Pig iron

In 2020, pig iron production rose by 7% to 8.47 million tons compared to 2019. Over the year, Ilyich Steel increased production of pig iron by 5% to 4.67 million tons, Azovstal’s output increased by 9% to 3.8 million tons.

Pig iron production increased by 7% amid greater production at both Mariupol plants. Production at Azovstal climbed by 328 thousand tons as the highly efficient blast furnace No. 3 was launched following its major overhaul and upgrade in June 2019 and a planned major overhaul of the blast furnace No. 2 in Q4 2019. Ilyich Steel’s pig iron production increased primarily due to a low-base effect caused by the shutdown of the blast furnaces Nos. 5 and 3 for planned overhauls in 2019, Metinvest’s report explains.

Iron ore concentrate

In 2020, Metinvest increased production of iron ore concentrate by 5% to 30.5 million tons compared to 2019.

Production of iron ore concentrate rose by 5% as a result of increase in ore production at three GOKs and the effect from operational improvements, as well as third-party ore processing at the Central Mining and Processing Plant, Metinvest’s report reads.

Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of the Metinvest Group. The major shareholders of Metinvest are its co-managing companies SKM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%).

In 9M 2020, Metinvest B.V. cut its revenue by 10% to $7.6 billion compared to three quarters of 2019. Over the period from January to September 2020, the Group’s EBITDA grew by 16% to 1.37 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.