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Ukraine’s biggest steelmaker, Metinvest BV, suspended half of its Ukrainian coal production as fighting raged in the Donetsk region.
The company halted a site in the area of Pishchane village near Pokrovsk, the epicenter of recent battles with Russian troops. The mine is one of three in the vicinity. Core personnel and their family members have been evacuated, Metinvest said in a statement on Thursday.
Other Metinvest facilities in the region continue to operate as the company and civil and military authorities monitor the situation. The impact of the stoppage at the Pishchane site is being assessed, according to the statement.
The fighting in and around the area is part of Russia’s grinding offensive as Ukrainian troops struggle to hold back assaults across the front line. The Kremlin’s aim is to seize strategic Donetsk settlements such as Pokrovsk and key hubs such as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
The Pishchane mine accounted for more than a third of the company’s earnings in the first half of the year, according to Dennis Sakva, an analyst with the Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital. Metinvest might consider importing coal, at higher prices, to fill the potential gap, he said.
“All of Ukraine’s metallurgy that uses blast furnaces relies on this coal,” Sakva said.
Ukraine’s steel output slumped to 6.2 million tons last year from more than 21 million tons before Russia’s invasion. The industry supplies products for the nation’s armed forces, but most of its output is designated for export, with the European Union its biggest market.
(By Olesia Safronova and Volodymyr Verbianyi)
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