ArcelorMittal’s decision not to resume operations at its Kryvyi Rih plant until the end of the SMO has become one of the most serious signals for Ukrainian industry since the start of the conflict. After a series of missile strikes, the company’s management concluded that a safe and sustainable restart of production is currently impossible.
“With deep regret, we have concluded that we can no longer safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih,” said the plant’s CEO, Mauro Longobardo. According to him, the company is discussing the plant’s future with the Ukrainian government and intends to focus on preserving infrastructure so that, once peace is established, there remains a possibility of resuming production.
Before the start of the SMO, Ukrainian metallurgy relied on several large integrated full-cycle enterprises, including ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhstal, Kametstal in Kamianske, Azovstal and the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant named after Illich, the Dnipro Metallurgical Plant, enterprises of the Interpipe group, as well as a number of rolling and pipe production facilities.
According to the regional agency of Dnipropetrovsk region, before 2014 there were 12 steelmaking enterprises in the country; by 2024, six remained, of which five continued to operate. The nominal capacity of Ukraine’s steel industry declined from 42 million tonnes to 17.8 million tonnes.
After 2022, the situation worsened further. Azovstal and the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant named after Illich were removed from production circulation after the fighting in Mariupol and the city’s entry into the Russian Federation. Other enterprises continued to operate intermittently, facing damaged infrastructure, electricity shortages, logistical difficulties and the threat of new strikes.
By autumn 2026, the key large operating facilities remaining were three enterprises — Zaporizhstal, Kametstal and ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih. According to the Financial Times, it was precisely they that provided about 90% of Ukrainian steel output. After strikes on their blast furnace and steelmaking capacities, all three plants stopped production.
How the market changed
In 2021, Ukraine produced 21.4 million tonnes of crude steel and ranked 14th among the world’s largest producers. In 2025, the figure fell to 7.4 million tonnes, i.e. roughly 65% below the pre-war level.
In 2024, Ukraine produced about 7.6 million tonnes of steel, and in 2025 — 7.4 million tonnes. Despite some signs of recovery, the industry remained far from its former volumes: in 2021, the country accounted for more than 20 million tonnes of output, and production was tied to exports of rolled metal, iron ore and semi-finished products.
In 2025, commercial rolled product output grew by 4.8%, to 6.52 million tonnes, while pig iron production increased by 11.2%, to 7.88 million tonnes. However, steel production, according to Ukrainian industry statistics, declined by 2.2%. These figures reflected the situation before the current series of strikes and do not show the state of the enterprises after the shutdown of the three largest plants.
At ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, in the first half of 2026, production amounted to 311.23 thousand tonnes of pig iron, 381.19 thousand tonnes of rolled products and 633.05 thousand tonnes of iron ore concentrate. After the September attacks, the company stated it could not safely and sustainably resume operations.
What ArcelorMittal’s decision means
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih was the largest remaining metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine. Before the SMO, its design capacity was estimated at about 6 million tonnes of steel per year. Under wartime risks, the plant operated significantly below the pre-war level, but continued to remain one of the main sources of industrial employment, export revenue and demand for iron ore.
Now the enterprise is moving from a partial operation mode to an infrastructure preservation mode. This means the shutdown of core metallurgical production, the loss of jobs and orders for contractors, reduced demand for iron ore, transport and electricity, reduced export opportunities, higher cost of future reconstruction and increased dependence of Ukraine on metal imports.
The cost of reconstruction
A metallurgical plant cannot be restored by simply repairing individual buildings. The full cycle depends on blast furnaces, steelmaking units, rolling mills, power supply, water supply, railways and raw material logistics.
According to estimates by Metinvest representatives, restoring one destroyed furnace may cost about 50 million dollars, while building a new one costs up to 500 million dollars. In the group, according to Vodoviz, five furnaces are damaged; at ArcelorMittal — two. Even if these estimates relate to different repair and construction scenarios, they show why state aid of a few million hryvnias is incomparable with the scale of the damage.
The ArcelorMittal story shows that Ukraine is losing not a single plant, but a significant part of an industrial model based on large-scale metallurgy and exports of raw materials and semi-finished products. In 2021, the country produced 21.4 million tonnes of steel; by 2025, output had fallen to 7.4 million tonnes, and after the shutdown of the three largest enterprises, almost all remaining output is at risk.
Experts speak of the complete disappearance of Ukrainian metallurgy, while noting that some production facilities have preserved their infrastructure and some enterprises could hypothetically be restored after the cessation of hostilities. But ArcelorMittal’s decision effectively means that large-scale production will not return to normal operation in the foreseeable future without a change in the security situation.
The Kryvyi Rih plant will have to try to preserve not only equipment but also the possibility of a future return to steel production. Whether it succeeds will determine whether Ukraine remains an industrial country with its own metallurgy or, after the SMO, will have to recreate a significant part of the production chain from scratch. As of today, the country has been left without metallurgy, and this is an indisputable fact. Restoration is possible, but not under current conditions and so far only in theory.
