Page 82 - UKRRptFeb19

largest titanium deposits.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih , Ukraine’s largest steel company and largest private company by revenue, plans to increase its capital investments this year by 30%, to over $450mn, reports the Dnirpopetrovsk-based company. Next month, it plans to hot test one of its big 2018 investments: two new continuous casting machines worth about $144mn.
Moody’s raised the corporate family rating of iron ore miner and pellet maker Ferrexpo to B3 with a Stable outlook on Dec. 27 following its Dec. 21 sovereign upgrade. Ferrexpo is rated one notch above Ukraine’s sovereign level by Moody’s. Ferrexpo’s two other ratings are B/Stable by S&P (one notch above sovereign) and B+/Stable by Fitch (two notches above sovereign).
Ukraine’s largest iron ore pellet exporter Ferrexpo (FXPO LN, FXPOLN) produced 961 kt of pellets in November, which amounts to 32.0 kt per day, a 4.3% m/m increase, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Dec. 28. In 11M18, Ferrexpo’s pellet output amounted to 9.67mmt, a 2.0% y/y increase.
Ukraine’s leading coal and power holding DTEK Energy produced 24.13mmt of hard steam coal in Ukraine in 2018 , Concorde Capital learned from sector-wide data provided by the Energy Ministry on January 18. This is a 5.3% y/y increase (on a like-to-like basis) but 0.7% below the holding’s updated mining plan for the year, as well as slightly below Concorde’s forecasted range of 24.2-24.3mmt. The holding’s biggest mine Pavlohradcoal produced 20.01mmt of coal in 2017, which is 0.6% less y/y, while its other two mining companies, combined, increased their output 49% y/y to 4.12mmt.
Ukraine’s largest steel producer Metinvest , controlled by the nation's richest oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, increased the attributable production of iron ore concentrate by 2.9% month-on-month (a 6.3% growth on a daily average basis) to 2.64mn tonnes (87.8 tonnes per day) in November, according to analysis published by Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital on December 20. The company's pellet output was 848 tonnes in November, an 8.2% m/m gain (or an 11.8% m/m increase on a daily average basis).
Ukraine’s leading pipemaker Interpipe pipe output rises 15% in 2018 Pipe production at Ukraine’s largest producer Interpipe was 1.92 kt per day (or 59.4 kt per month) in December, a 10.5% m/m increase in average daily terms, according to Concorde Capital’s analysis of a January 24 news report by Interfax-Ukraine. Interpipe NTRP pipe production jumped 52.1% m/m to 0.78 kt per day in December. Interpipe NMPP output plunged 41.7% m/m to 0.16 kt per day. Interpipe Niko Tube output gained 3.3% m/m to 0.97 kt per day. In 2018, Interpipe’s pipe production was 756.2 kt, or 15.0% more y/y. In a separate news report, Interfax-Ukraine said that Interpipe Steel’s output of crude steel was 2.65 kt per day in December, a 15.0% m/m increase. The 2018 steel output at Interpipe Steel was 973 kt, a 13.8% y/y gain. “We tentatively expect the 2019 pipe production volume at Interpipe to drop 7% y/y to 700 kt, or 1.92 kt per day, which was the average production rate for both December and the fourth quarter of 2018,” Dmytro Khoroshun of Concorde Capital said in a note.
82 UKRAINE Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com