Yenakiyieve Steel operates on occupied territory, media report

The Russian-backed occupiers of the Donbas region of Ukraine are launching the assets of Metinvest (METINV) which had been seized, Interfax-Ukraine reported on May 22. Operational control of the seized assets is being provided by a company under the management of Sergey Kurchenko (closely related to Viktor Yanukovych), a source on the occupied territory told Interfax. Yenakiyeve Steel was partly launched and has produced about 2.7 kt of steel which will be rerolled at Makiyivka Plant. “But all products are being shipped to the warehouses, and there is no information about further sales” the source said.

In other news, the Eurasian Economic Commission introduced a preliminary anti-dumping duty on angles imported from Ukraine into the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union (including Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia), according to an announcement published on May 15. The anti-dumping duty applies to Yenakiyeve Steel, Azovstal (AZST UK) and other Ukrainian steel mills. Earlier, on March 31, an anti-dumping duty was introduced on steel rods imported from Ukraine into the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Ukrainian iron ore producers have not supplied any materials for steel mills in occupied Donbas since February 10-11, when Ukrainian activists blocked all railway connections from mainland Ukraine. On March 15, a trade blockade of the occupied territories was officially imposed by the Ukrainian president, and Ukraine’s largest steel holding Metinvest (METINV) declared its loss of control over Yenakiyeve Steel and other enterprises located in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Andriy Perederey: Its looks like the separatists want to launch the seized assets to give jobs to citizens and to avoid tension in the occupied territory of Donbas. And it seems that the at the moment, the Russian government is ready to support the operation of the enterprises, but is not ready to buy metallurgical products. It is looks like the produced steel will be used exclusively in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Also, the amount of output from Yenakiieve Steel implies that the operators had launched one blast furnace with a total capacity output of pig iron of 3 kt per day.