The Mariupol Ilyich plant begins an emergency shutdown - the city faces dire consequences
Kyiv, February 08 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – The Mariupol Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest holding, was on the verge of stopping, said the director of the enterprise, Yuri Zinchenko.
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“The Ilyich plant is on the verge of shutdown due to the cessation of natural gas supplies by gas supply organizations.
During February 6-7, the pressure of MMKI natural gas was reduced to critically low levels. As of 12:00 on February 7, gas pressure at one of the largest metallurgical enterprises in Ukraine was 15% below the standard. A complete cessation of gas supply, according to notifications received by the plant, may occur as early as February 9.
Gas workers explain this by the company's debt for the supplied gas.
In January of this year, after lengthy negotiations with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Metinvest Group received a small part of the debt from the state (reimbursement of VAT previously paid by the company). These funds were immediately returned to the state: Metinvest, within the amount received from the state budget, paid off existing debts to the ports and NJSC Naftogaz.
At the moment, the pressure at the gas distribution stations of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works is the maximum permissible. While maintaining the dynamics of reducing natural gas pressure, already on February 7, in order to avoid a man-made disaster, the plant intends to begin the procedure for emergency shutdown of blast furnaces, according to the emergency response plan. Otherwise, the lack of natural gas at the igniters of gas discharge devices may lead to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning of plant workers and residents of the areas adjacent to MMKI.
A complete shutdown of production, in addition to MMKI, also threatens the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and a number of other enterprises in Mariupol.
The ambitions of gas supply organizations are putting the entire mining and metallurgical complex of Ukraine on the brink of survival. And this despite the fact that at the Ilyich plant alone, the state’s debt for unrefunded VAT is almost 2 times higher than the debt for consumed gas. The state has begun to reimburse us for VAT, but while old debts are being covered, during this time the debt for the new period has time to grow, and this does not allow us to solve the problem of lack of working capital. We have practically no safety margin left.
If the gas supply stops, Mariupol metallurgical plants will stop. The heat supply to part of the city’s residential areas and social facilities, including hospitals, will be cut off. We will do everything to avoid accidents and unpleasant consequences for the city in this situation. But MMKI alone employs more than 30 thousand people. Iron and steel plants named after Ilyich and Azovstal are city-forming for Mariupol. And the decisions of gas workers threaten tens of thousands of Mariupol residents; such decisions can explode the situation in the front-line city.
I consider such actions absolutely unacceptable and immoral in the conditions in which metallurgists and the entire Mariupol live today. Gas blackmail against the backdrop of almost daily shelling of the suburbs of Mariupol, from which the windows in the apartments of citizens shake, will have serious economic and social consequences,” Zinchenko said in a statement.