OREANDA-NEWS. Despite the difficult situation in Eastern Ukraine, Metinvest Group continues to supply raw materials to its production assets and ship finished goods to its customers. The Group's logistics business unit, together with Ukrainian Railways, established a crisis center to coordinate cargo flow. Alternative seaborne deliveries are being explored too.

A number of railway stations and track sections used by Metinvest are out of operation: Debaltseve, Horlivka, Rovenky, Luhansk, Lutuhyne, Avdiivka-Donetsk, Avdiivka-Yasynuvata, and Ocheretino-Horlivka.

Raw materials for Metinvest's metallurgical and coking plants are being delivered through Donetsk Railway's main marshalling yard in Yasynuvata. Raw materials for Mariupol metallurgical plants are being routed via Prydniprovsk Railways, though delivery times have increased significantly due to the shutdown of a number of railway stations and track sections.

In order to resume deliveries of raw materials from Krasnodon Coal to the coking plants, Metinvest and Ukrainian Railways continues to work on restoring the out of service Izotovo-Semeikino-Novoe track section. It is planned to relaunch this section after August 10.

In order to assure uninterrupted work at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol and Azovstal, Metinvest is creating buffer warehouses of key raw materials (coal, coke, and sintering ore) in the port of Mariupol. Deliveries of ore and coal for the Group's coking operations will be delivered via the ports of Mariupol, Berdyansk and Yuzhniy.

Until the buffer stock of materials is built up, Metinvest's metallurgical plants will decrease their capacity utilization. The decrease in steel output will be compensated by increased production at Zaporizhstal and the Group's European production assets. As soon as the enterprises in the military action zone return to their normal operational mode, sales of finished goods will resume in full. In terms of seaborne exports, vessels will be loaded ahead of schedule in order to assure accelerated product shipments to customers. The mode and volume of shipments were agreed upon with customers, taking into consideration their needs.

The Group's mining enterprises are maintaining their current level of production and plan to reorient around 350,000 tons of raw materials for export.

Despite the challenging situation, Metinvest is undertaking every possible effort to fulfill its contractual obligations. The plants' production programs are being formed by maximizing finished goods shipments and reducing semi-finished steel product and intra-group shipments.