KYIV, March 27 – Ukraine’s metallurgical industry will recover only after the ports are unblocked – the opening of seaports not only for grain, but also for steel exports, could bring Ukraine up to $600 million in foreign currency proceeds every month, according to the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group.

The commercial director of Metinvest, Dmytro Nikolayenko, said in a column for Forbes, that in fact, the plants are also operating at less than one third of total capacity on Ukrainian-controlled territory. In particular, in December 2022, the Kamet Steel and Zaporizhstal mills were operating at 25% and 33% of their pre-war levels respectively.