By Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv (EFE).- Ukraine’s metallurgy industry has halted production for the first time since WW2 after a series of Russian missile strikes and blocked export routes pushed one of the country’s key sectors, which accounted for around 6% of GDP and 6.2 billion dollars of export earnings in 2025, to the brink of survival.
The ArcelorMittal plant in Kryvyi Rih became the last of Ukraine’s major steelworks to completely cease operations following four direct missile strikes in five weeks that killed five workers and wounded 17.
“It is with deep regret that we have concluded that we are no longer able to safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih,” CEO Mauro Longobardo said in a statement issued on Friday, several days after the latest strike on Sep. 21 cut short an attempt to restart production.
The company is discussing the future of the plant with the Government of Ukraine and will focus on preserving the infrastructure “so when peace finally returns, options for restarting production remain available,” the statement said.
Excluding direct damage from the strikes, the loss of value of the facility and its equipment is estimated at about 1 billion dollars. The future of thousands of employees, who continued working under extraordinary conditions for over 4.5 years of the invasion, remains uncertain.
The industry under attack
Attempts by other companies to restart production have also failed, according to Oleksandr Vodoviz, a senior manager at Metinvest, who spoke at the Economic Resilience Forum organized by Forbes Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The industry faces a triple pressure of Russian strikes, the effective closure of Black Sea export routes due to attacks on ports and shipping, and sharply reduced access to the European Union market after the introduction of tariff-rate quotas in July, Vodoviz said.
“Absolutely all the factories have been hit hard. These are Arcelor, Metinvest, the Petrovsky plant and Interpipe. There was a series of strikes. Many people died,” he said, noting that Metinvest has lost five furnaces while ArcelorMittal lost two before the latest attack.
A recent attempt to restart one furnace at Zaporizhstal steel plant was followed by a Russian missile strike only 10 hours later. Further restarts carry high costs and risks.
“Starting the furnace costs from 50 million dollars, and the furnace itself costs 0.5 billion dollars. To somehow repair it requires a huge amount of money,” Vodoviz said, while the halt in exports leaves companies without the resources needed to resume operations.
Blocked exports and solutions
“We are currently not exporting, although until recently we were the largest exporter in the country,” he said, referring to the near blockade of the Black Sea ports, which previously handled the bulk of metallurgical exports, by Russian attacks.
The EU quotas introduced in July have also restricted the key alternative market. In the first half of 2025, about half of Ukraine’s metal exports went to the EU.
The stoppage of the sector, which in 2025 contributed around 6% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2025 and up to 15% of foreign-currency earnings, is already triggering a chain reaction across the economy.
Some of the largest iron ore facilities have suspended operations, and state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia faces a potential 40% drop in revenues due to a sharp fall in the transport of ore and metal products.
According to the GMK Center analytical platform, some 70,000 employees in the sector risk losing their jobs, with a particularly severe impact on industrial cities such as Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia.
Hundreds of thousands more workers in related industries could also be affected.
Industry representatives say the sector needs urgent government support similar to that provided to the energy system, badly damaged by Russian air strikes.
Reopening trade routes via the western border with the EU and facilitating transit to other markets could help the industry survive amid the ongoing attacks. EFE
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