Kyiv Post reported that while business in Ukraine’s eastern war zone is no easy chore, at Azovstal, a major steelmaker in the Azov Sea port city of 500,000 people, survival tactics range from bypassing dangerous routes for supplies to inspecting and re stocking shelters for workers in case of shelling.

Mr Enver Skitishvili GD of Azovstal, which is a part of Mr Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest Holding, said that “We have major complications with logistics. Donetsk is almost cut off and we have almost no shipments through Donetsk.”

Mr Skitishvili said that “The plant was also forced to diversify coking coal supplies and start shipping goods and raw materials by sea to compensate for the loss of its main supply route. But the sea supplies are limited because the sea is shallow, so we have difficulties.

Mr Skitishvili said that “He expects a drop of 30 percent of production across the board because of this problem, but insists that so far it has not affected financial performance so far. Because we went to more expensive markets we’ve lost just 10% to 15% in monetary terms, no more.”

Azovstal has managed to even find some silver linings in this war, diversifying their range of products and finding new markets. Mr Skitishvili said that “We have decided to work to improve quality and mastering new steel grades. As of November of last year, Azovstal has developed the capacity and skills to produce 50 new grades of steel that nobody else makes. New standards have been introduced for some types of rolled steel, which increase the width of the metal sheet out of Azovstal’s capacity. The new GOST (Russian national standard) means that supplies of my sheets are additionally taxed. Kazakhstan, which is a part of Customs Union with Russia, adapted the same standard, locking Ukraine out of the supply chain.”

(Source - www.steelguru.com)