Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Ukraine's steel output increased by 21.6% in 2024, but fighting near the only coking coal mine threatens future production, potentially reducing output to 2-3 million tons in 2025.
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's steel output rose by 21.6% in 2024 to 7.58 million metric tons, its producers union said late on Thursday, though fighting that is closing in on the country's only coking coal mine threatens to slash volumes this year.
Steel production has already suffered since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, which has led to the destruction of leading steel plants.
Ukraine, formerly a major steel producer and exporter, reported a 70.7% drop in output in 2022 to 6.3 million tons. It fell to 6 million tons in 2023.
The steelmakers' union said in October the potential closure of the Pokrovsk mine, Ukraine's only coking coal mine, could cause steel production to slump to 2-3 million metric tons in 2025.
Advancing Russian forces are less than 2 km (1.24 miles) from the mine, Ukrainian military analyst DeepState said on Friday.
The mine's owner, steelmaker Metinvest BV, said last month it had already halted some operations at the mine and two industry sources said it was operating at 50% capacity.
Producers have said they hope to find coking coal from elsewhere in Ukraine should the mine be seized by Russian troops, but imports would inevitably be needed which would raise costs.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Jason Neely)
The article discusses Ukraine's increased steel output in 2024 and the threat to coking coal supply due to nearby fighting.
Ukraine's steel production rose by 21.6% in 2024 but had previously dropped by 70.7% in 2022.
Fighting near the Pokrovsk mine threatens to reduce steel production, potentially requiring costly imports.
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