ArcelorMittal imposed part-time schedules for most employees since July

Since July 2022, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has swiched most of its employees, including top management and foreign employees, to 2/3 workload schedules due to the inability to pay full salaries, CEO of the plant Mauro Longobardo said, according to the plant’s Telegram channel.

“For the management of the company, the main priority is to save the team. As long as possible, we will fight for every job. Therefore, now, when we no longer have the opportunity to pay full wages, we are forced to revise the work schedules for employees, both production and administrative staff,” the CEO of the plant noted.

According to him, the Russia’s blockade of seaports caused difficulties with the export of mining & metals products. The company completely rebuilt its logistics for rail transportation, exporting concentrate and pig iron by rail in order to provide the plant with income and the state budget with taxes. At the same time, the cost of delivering products to customers increased by 5 times.

The company’s export volumes decrease, as Ukrzaliznytsia and European railway companies cannot cope with a large cargo volumes from Ukraine. Thus, the products remain in the warehouses of the plant.

“In addition, earlier the authorities decided to increase Ukrzaliznytsia tariffs by 70%. This makes the already high transportation costs unbearable for us. The question of the survival of our enterprise has never been so acute. We are forced to drastically cut our costs in all areas,” added Mauro Longobardo.

Earlier GMK Center reported, that ArcelorMittal and Ukrzaliznytsia announced their intention jointly look for opportunities to increase the supply of steel products and iron ore raw materials for export in the conditions of blocking seaports by the aggressor.

Also, according to the CEO of ArcelorMittal Mauro Longobardo, company planned  to reach 70% capacity in June and sell 650 thousand tons of products in the same month, of which 200 thousand tons are steel products and 450 thousand tons are iron ore concentrate.