Akhmetov has almost everything intact in Donbass; his empire is only threatened by a gas cut
Moscow - Kyiv, October 20 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - A source who, on duty, keeps his finger on the pulse of industry in the ATO zone reported "MK-Donbass" that the enterprises of Rinat Akhmetov’s business empire were not damaged even in the battle zone. The only thing that can really threaten them is turning off the gas in winter.
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Akhmetov’s business in Donbass is practically at a standstill. Avdeevka coking plant, the largest in Europe, is under the control of the Ukrainian army, but was repeatedly shelled during the battles for Avdiivka, Yasinovataya and Donetsk airport. Therefore - it doesn't work. The Yenakievo Metallurgical Plant received a shell in the blast furnace shop - and it’s also standing. The Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant is also not working, the best mine in the region, Komsomolets Donbassa in Kirovsk, is idle, as are most of the mines in the territories controlled by the DPR and LPR. The railway tracks at the junction stations of Yasinovataya, Gorlovka and Nikitovka, through which there was a flow of raw materials to the metallurgical plants of the Donetsk region, were broken. Without raw materials, the metallurgical plants of Mariupol, untouched by the war, are suffocating and operating at half capacity. In Mariupol, a joke was even born about “good Colombian coke” for the city. The Ilyich plant and Azovstal are indeed now working on imported coke. They speak Chinese and Colombian.
But the weight is not as bad as it looks, the newspaper writes.
“So, it’s worth starting with the pearl of Akhmetov’s empire - the Avdeevsky coke plant,” the publication continues. – The heart of any such production is coke batteries, made of special refractory bricks. Such a brick heats up once in its life - if the furnace stops and cools down, the brick becomes unusable. In Avdeevka, at the plant, all four high-voltage electrical power inputs were damaged by artillery fire, coke production was stopped long ago, several fires were recorded at the production site, but... coke batteries are alive! The plant is powered by electricity from temporary buildings, and the batteries maintain a temperature of 900 degrees by burning natural gas. This means that if there is a ceasefire and a transport blockade, the Avdeevka Coke Plant can resume work as soon as possible. The same can be said about the Yenakievo Metallurgical Plant. A shell actually landed in the blast furnace shop and damaged the gas ducts. But the damage has already been restored, and the plant, also using natural gas, has gone into hot storage.”
The Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant just stopped (it doesn’t need hot preservation due to technology). The mines are also unconscious, but not dead. First Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yuriy Zyukov recently reported that only 24 out of 93 mines are currently producing coal in the Donbass. The mines of Krasnoarmeysk, Dobropolye and Selidov operate on Ukrainian territory. All the mines in Donetsk are standing and are gradually filling with water. To date, only the Zhovtnevy mine, which is located too close to the warring airport, has been seriously damaged. In addition to this mine, 6 more mines have been established in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The rest of the coal enterprises can really be brought back to life.
Another thing is that if in peacetime the same mines in the Donetsk region produced 110 thousand tons of coal per day, today the production is only 30-35 thousand tons. There are no longer any physical reserves of coal for coke. There are no reserves of thermal coal at the thermal power plants owned by Akhmetov - Kurakhovskaya, Luganskaya and Zugresskaya. Rinat Leonidovich’s crown also includes the Slavyanskaya Thermal Power Plant. But it was located in the notorious Nikolaevka, and its repairs after fierce fighting around it are still ongoing.
Akhmetov’s Mariupol giants have barely any glimmer of life: there is not enough coal, no coke, and the delivery of iron ore concentrates is difficult. If a year ago Azovstal produced 15 tons of pig iron per day and another 000 were smelted by the Ilyich plant, today they produce these 16-000 thousand through joint efforts, and not every day. At the same time, part of the coke has to be purchased abroad, and the raw materials are transported over long and more expensive routes, both by rail through Volnovakha and by sea. Accordingly, the profitability of Akhmetov’s business where he still works has sharply decreased.
At the same time, one gets the impression that the large industry of Donbass, although not working, can survive the war. But she may not survive the winter. Especially without Russian gas. Typically in summer, industry consumes up to 80% of gas, and the population - about 20%. In winter, these proportions change dramatically: 25% for industry and 75% for heating housing and social amenities. And if cities freeze and there are no agreements with Russia on gas, then the industrial giants that do not produce products will be the first to be cut off from gas. And today's successes in hot shutdown of production will become useless.
Perhaps it is the threat of “General Moroz” entering the war that will force the hotheads or their financiers to stop the fighting at least until spring, the newspaper writes.
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