ArcelorMittal threatens to close an iron ore mine in Ukraine

The management of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih said that if the Ukrainian government increases fees associated with the extraction of iron ore, the company will be forced to stop the mine. Other Ukrainian companies speak in a similar tone.

Recently, the Ukrainian parliament has proposed tax changes that will affect the entire mining industry in Ukraine, including the ArcelorMittal mine in Krivoy Rog. The company believes that the new taxes will quadruple the cost, depriving the mine of economic value and losing thousands of jobs.

The tax burden will increase by 3-4 times. Therefore, the rent in relation to the commercial profit of Ukrainian enterprises will be 10 times higher than in Russia. As a result, they will oust Ukrainian exporters from the European Union. The company's losses will amount to about 26 million tons. This is two-thirds of what is exported by the company.

In addition, the conflict between ArcelorMittal and the administration of the new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is intensifying. Ukrainian security officials monitored the concern's factories in July and August, accusing it of environmental poisoning and then a US $ 360 million in tax arrears. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih disagreed with the charges in both cases.

In early September, the authorities wanted to conduct additional checks. According to ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, representatives of the SBU did not want to submit a document, according to which an inspection was to be carried out, so the company did not agree to their entry into the plant.

A few days later, the company announced a change in its decision to pay dividends for the past year. In April of this year, it was decided to keep dividends in the company and direct it to business development. Now a decision has been made to pay dividends to shareholders. 95% of the company's shares belong to the ArcelorMittal branch in Duisburg, so 95% of the dividends will be withdrawn from Ukraine.