One of the major steel manufacturers in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih (AMKR), announced yesterday, November 24, that it has had to stop operations at most of its production facilities due to problems with energy supply after a massive wave of missile attacks by Russia on Ukrainian infrastructure on the same day, which caused blackouts all across the country.
“The available amounts of energy are not enough to support production even at 20 percent of capacity. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has temporarily stopped steel smelting and rolling production,” the company stated, adding that it will resume normal operation as soon as specialists succeed in repairing Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The energy supply to residential buildings started to come back yesterday, but the system is still very unstable.
At the moment, only coke batteries No. 5 and No. 6 at AMKR are in operation. Two other coke plants (No. 3 and No. 4) and the blast furnace No. 6 are in hot conservation mode. Both iron ore pits of AMKR do not currently have energy supply.
As SteelOrbis reported previously, AMKR was working with only one out of four BFs due to big logistical issues as all major Ukrainian ports are blocked and so transportation costs are very high by rail. Russian attacks on critical Ukrainian infrastructure since early October have already damaged up to 40 percent of the entire energy system of the country.