Ukraine’s steel sector looks abroad after loss of critical Donbas coal mine

Ukraine’s steel producers are now looking abroad to stay alive after the closure of the country’s last operating coking coal mine in Pokrovsk last month.

Without the mine in Pokrovsk, Ukraine needs to find a replacement to plug a nearly 3 million ton deficit.

Coke production facilities are also required to extract the coke from coking coal but many have been damaged or occupied, like in Avdiivka, said Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist at the Center for Economic Strategy (CES). There are five remaining facilities in Ukraine’s east, but not all are in good shape and have old machinery, like the Zaporizhzhia plant.

A balance of imports of both coke and coking coal is the only option to keep Ukraine’s steel facilities operational. Up until 2022, Russia was Ukraine’s largest coke source. Unsurprisingly, that has changed in recent years and Poland made up 85% of Ukraine’s coke imports in 2024. Poland also provides some coking coal, although the majority comes overseas from the U.S. and Australia.

Source: Kyiv Independent. 

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