Page 61 - UKRRptApr20

decreased 22.4% m/m to $274mn. Its gross debt rose $61mn m/m to $3,032mn. Metinvest’s metallurgical segment EBITDA was $-85mn in December, plunging further into the red from $-36mn in November, while its mining segment EBITDA jumped 36.1% m/m to $49mn. In 2019, Metinvest’s revenue dropped 9.5% y/y to $10,757mn, while its EBITDA plunged 51.7% to $1,213mn. Iron and steel product prices showed mixed m/m dynamics in December, gaining 5% for pig iron and slabs, rising 7% for long products, but losing 2% for flat products. Iron ore concentrate price slid 2% m/m, while pellet price dropped 7% m/m.
● Interpipe
Interpipe, Ukraine’s pipe and wheel giant, is preparing for sales to drop this year by 30% to 50%.​ Low oil prices cut oil company drilling plans, dragging down pipe sales, Fadi Hraibi, the company’s CEO, tells Interfax-Ukraine. Although rail wheel production was up 17% during the first two months of this year, compared to Jan/Feb 2019, Hraibi forecasts that the European recession will force cuts in railroad investment. Hraibi intimated that job cuts will be inevitable among the workforce of 12,000, largely based in Dnipro. The company is owned by Viktor Pinchuk.
Pipe sales volume at Ukraine’s largest producer Interpipe was 36.9 kt in February, a 23.8% m/m rise​, according to the company’s February operational report released on March 19. Railway product sales dropped 14.7% m/m to 18.2 kt, while external billet sales plunged 78.3% m/m to 0.8 kt. Total sales volume inched up 2.0% m/m to 55.9 kt. The m/m jump in pipe sales volume in February was driven by line pipes (+34% m/m to 20.8 kt) and OCTG pipes (+23% to 10.4 kt), which more than offset decreases for mechanical pipes (-11% to 1.2 kt) and welded pipes (-1% to 4.4 kt).
● Other
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest mining and metallurgical plant, is cutting personnel and production​, the company reports. For a mix of commercial and epidemiological reasons, some units are closed, others work staggered shifts, and many office workers work from home. The mill is renting 48 buses to compensate for the lack of public transport.
Kremenchuk Steel Casting Works will close March 25, putting almost 1,000 workers out of work​, reports Kremenchuk Gazeta. Workers told the city newspaper that sales are falling and the company has trouble getting workers to work because of anti-coronavirus controls on buses. Part of the TAS Group, the Poltava Oblast factory is owned by Sergiy Tigipko.
9.2.12 ​Other sector corporate news
The​ ​Russian Fund for Direct Investment​ (RDIF) has tied up with Japanese scientists to create a state-of-the-art portable kit that can test for the coronavirus (​COVID-19) within 30mins and will go into mass production in April, the fund reported in press release on March 16. With a vaccine reportedly at least a year away, the kit will help in the fight against the spread of the virus but allowing accurate tests to be conducted anywhere that gives immediate results without the need for laboratories, the RDIF says.
61​ UKRAINE Country Report​ April 2018 ​ ​www.intellinews.com