Rinat Akhmetov is ready to join the EU Green Deal and is looking for opportunities to expand business in Europe

14 May 2023, 11:41

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The metallurgical holding of the richest businessman in Ukraine is ready to join the "green" transition of Europe as part of the decarbonization of the steel industry and intends to increase its presence in Europe at all levels.

Rinat Akhmetov is ready to join the EU Green Deal and is looking for opportunities to expand business in Europe

Netherlands mining and metallurgical holding Metinvest B.V. (Metinvest), which controls a number of steel mills in Ukraine and Italy, is ready to join Europe's green transition as part of the decarbonization of the steel industry. Yuriy Ryzhenkov, General Director of Metinvest, spoke about this at the Made in Steel conference in Milan.

In his speech, Yuriy Ryzhenkov stressed that he shares the strategy of the Ukrainian government for the post-war reconstruction of the country, which is to continue the development of renewable and nuclear energy. Indeed, thanks to the powerful reserves of nuclear energy that can be used to produce environmentally friendly hydrogen, Ukraine can become a supplier of raw materials for the production of direct reduced iron (DRI) for Europe.

According to him, most of Ukraine's energy balance is already decarbonized: it is 65% nuclear, 10-15% renewable and 10% hydrogen.

“The idea is to build DRI capacity at our facilities in Ukraine for deliveries to EU consumers. And this, in my opinion, should become an integral part of the restoration of Ukraine. It is also a way to bring Ukraine closer to the EU by entering the overall EU product chain in this green steel movement,” Ryzhenkov said.

And he added that the transition to “green” production will make steel products more competitive in the future. Cleaner steel will have an advantage over other products such as aluminum or plastic.

Metinvest also intends to increase its presence in Europe at all levels.

“We are looking for opportunities related to the acquisition of companies in Europe, as well as with the construction of enterprises from scratch, in particular in Italy. Even if these plants will not run on hydrogen or renewable energy from day one, they must have all the characteristics to operate in an environmentally sustainable way in the future,” explained the head of the company.

Made in Steel is an international exhibition and a steel industry conference held in Milan on May 9-11, 2023. More than 300 companies from 21 countries representing different segments of the mining and metallurgical complex took part in the exhibition.

Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine - in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in European countries.

Following the results of January-March 2023, Metinvest reduced steel production by 75% compared to the same period last year - up to 491 thousand tons. Pig iron production also decreased by 75% to 448 thousand tons, coke production – by 59% to 318 thousand tons, however commercial coke increased by 1% to 213 thousand tons. There was no production of rail and pipe products, since the products were previously produced at Mariupol plants.

As reported, Metinvest, in 2022, reduced steel production by 69% compared to the previous year - to 2.918 million tons, pig iron by 72 % - up to 2.743 million tons, coke - by 64%, up to 1.653 million tons, including commercial coke - by 49%, up to 811 thousand tons.

The main shareholders of the holding are Rinat's SCM group Akhmetov (71.24%) and Vadim Novinsky's Smart Holding (23.76%), jointly managing it.