Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest plans to continue cutting pig iron shipments in 2020 and to further increase its slab and steel output, sales director Dmitry Nikolayenko told Fastmarkets on the sidelines of the Middle East Iron & Steel (MEIS) conference in Dubai last week.
In 2020, Metinvest's pig iron shipments will be down by about 200,000 tonnes compared with 2019, the company said.
Over the first nine months of 2019, Metinvest shipped 1.4 million tonnes of pig iron - a drop of 653,000 tonnes (or 32%) compared with the same period in 2018, when shipments totaled 2.1 million tonnes, according to the company's most recent financial report.
The biggest fall occurred in North America, where Metinvest's pig iron shipments fell by 487,000 tonnes over the period.
In January-September 2019, Ukraine exported 1.8 million tonnes of pig iron, according to the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB).
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR) is the other exporter of pig iron from Ukraine.
Of Ukraine's total shipments, 1.1 million tonnes were...