The Ukrainian flat steel producer Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol (Ilyich) has stopped operations at its Interinvestugol coal mine, located in the Lugansk region.
"We stopped the mine's operations, as there is no reason to produce 100 mt of coal per day and later not to know what to do with it. It is better to pay the people's salaries, than to defray production costs," said the mill's president Vladimir Boiko.
Currently, Ilyich is trying to maintain operations at two of its five blast furnaces and at some of its steel smelting facilities, so as to produce about 100,000-120,000 mt of pig iron per month, and in order to be able to avoid mass layoffs of workers over the next four months.
According to Mr. Boiko, Ilyich has frozen all its investment projects and expects losses of UAH 250 million (approx. $43 million) for the month of October.