ArcelorMittal Halts Kryvyi Rih Steel Plant After Russian Strikes

ArcelorMittal has told the Ukrainian government it cannot restart production at the country's largest steel plant following a series of Russian missile strikes, the Luxembourg-based company said on Friday.

The firm said four strikes in five weeks had caused extensive damage and killed five workers at its Kryvyi Rih facility in southeastern Ukraine, making "safe and sustainable" operations impossible.

"It is with deep regret that we have concluded that we are no longer able to safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih," subsidiary CEO Mauro Longobardo said in a statement.

The plant produced 1.7 million metric tons of steel in 2025, while its iron ore mines yielded 7.6 million tons of ore, according to the company's annual report. ArcelorMittal expects to book a non-cash impairment charge of around $1 billion.

Longobardo said the company was discussing the plant's future with the Ukrainian government and would focus on preserving infrastructure so that production could resume once peace returns.

The shutdown is a fresh blow to Ukraine's steel sector, which accounts for 15% of national exports and has been squeezed by Russian attacks and restrictions from the European Union, its main trading partner.

Russia has stepped up attacks across Ukraine in recent months, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that Kyiv's military lacks the resources to intercept. Targets have included businesses, logistics networks, Black Sea port facilities and civilian infrastructure.

A drone strike on central Kyiv on Friday killed a 14-year-old boy, an attack President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called "absolutely savage and sickening." Zelenskiy said a separate strike killed one person at a postal facility in the Black Sea port of Odesa, while a medical clinic in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia was hit while people were inside.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in the war, which began with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its defence ministry said its forces had carried out overnight drone strikes on Ukrainian defence industry facilities, logistics centres and vessels used by Kyiv's armed forces.

The United Nations said its monitoring mission in Ukraine had recorded at least 200 civilian deaths in September from attacks that also damaged homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces.

Ukraine has also intensified attacks on Russia, targeting defence and energy facilities as well as major online retailers in an effort to undermine revenues and support for Moscow's war effort.

Other Ukrainian steel producers have been hit repeatedly. Earlier this month, a ballistic missile strike on Metinvest's Kamet pig iron and steel plant in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region forced a halt to operations. Zaporizhstal, its nearly century-old mill, temporarily closed in August after a strike that killed seven workers.

A Kepler Cheuvreux analyst said the impact on ArcelorMittal and global steel markets was likely to be limited because the Kryvyi Rih plant had already been operating at significantly reduced capacity since 2022. Investors appeared to have anticipated the decision after recent strikes, and the impairment charge was relatively modest for a company of ArcelorMittal's size, equivalent to roughly 2% of its market capitalisation, the analyst added.

ArcelorMittal shares were up 2.2% in morning trade, outperforming a 0.6% rise in the pan-European STOXX 600 index.