Electricity prices make operations unprofitable, my job is to convince the Group to support and believe in Ukraine – CEO of "ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih" (P. 2)

The exclusive interview with Mauro Longobardo, CEO of the Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih” (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk region)

(part II)

Text: Yuriy Guly

How big was the Group’s help to AMKR in 2025-2026? Is the Group going to help you in the future?

Since 2022, the Group has already injected $1.2 billion to our company for its survival. For this year, the profitability forecast is also negative: the business will likely lose at least $150 million. 

It seems that we will experience these losses in Q1 because of loss of markets and energy prices which are extremely high compared to any historical period, so we couldn’t budget it. Previously, we predicted such a loss for a whole year! This picture ($150 million losses in Q1) is pretty scary. It is not what we expected. And we do not see how it all is about to improve so much. 

Are you able to sell products to other markets than European ones?

In 2025, we only had three markets: US (for pig iron), EU and domestic one. The first and third markets remain but the European market is lost as of now.  

The EBRD recently provided AMKR with an additional loan of up to $200 million to replenish working capital and support operations. How will this support the plants’ operations? 

We are pretty happy that EBRD is continuously trying to help local businesses. I must say that it has already supported and they have been consumed. We just restructured the repayment scheme because the initial one they gave us 3 years ago was supposed to start being paid at the end of 2025. But that didn’t happen, and EBRD decided to continue helping us and they restructured it. So, we don’t have this big issue of repayment but, definitely, $200 million is not