Kryvorizhstal

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Kryvorizhstal (Ukrainian: Криворіжсталь, Russian: ; officially Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih) is a large integrated steel company located in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. Recently bought by the Mittal Steel, the company is one of the most important businesses in Ukraine and a globally-important steel producer. Particularly, it is the largest steel manufacturer in Ukraine and largest manufacturer of both reinforcing bar and wire rod in the former Soviet Union. The company also produces processed iron ore concentrates for both own use and market.

In 2004, Kryvorizhstal produced about 7.08 million tonnes of crude steel. As of 2005, the company employed about 57,000 people.

Contents

1 Names
2 Structure
3 History

3.1 Soviet times
3.2 Privatization

4 See also

Names

Official names:
* Ukrainian: Відкрите акціонерне товариство "Міттал Стіл Кривий Ріг" (ВАТ "Міттал Стіл Кривий Ріг")
* English: Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih Joint Stock Company (Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih JSC)
Former official names:
* Ukrainian: Відкрите акціонерне товариство "Криворізький гірничо-металургійний комбінат "Криворіжсталь" (ВАТ КГМК "Криворіжсталь")
* English: Kryvorizhstal Mining and Metallurgy Kombinat JSC (KGMK Kryvorizhstal JSC)

Structure

Located fully in Kryvyi Rih, Kryvorizhstal is the largest and most up-to date steel company in the Kryvbas region (as well as in the whole Ukraine). It was built as an integrated mining and metallurgy plant (Ukrainian: комбінат, kombinat), comprising of:

iron ore mines
ore processing factories
coke-processing, oxygen and other auxiliary metallurgical facilities
metal fusion workshops of different types
metal-rolling workshops

Company's iron ore needs are satisfied by both its own processing and the supply by other ore companies of Kryvyi Rih. Instead, Kryvorizhstal sells part of its processed ore on the market.

History

Soviet times

Kryvorizhstal (as it is historically named) is the newest steel industry in Ukraine. It was built by the Soviet government in the middle of 20th century, exclusively for exploiting of the newly-discovered Kryvorizkyi Basin ore deposits.

Privatization

Kryvorizhstal became internationally known when it was privatized in June 2004 for a sum of $800 million, against a government-set reserve price of $714 million, to a consortium called Investment-Metallurgical Union. This consortium was made up of Rinat Akhmetov's SCM and Interpipe Group, controlled by then-President Kuchma's son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk. Offers exceeding $1 billion from foreign investors were rejected on a technicality. The deal has been widely criticized by the opposition and abroad as an example of corruption and state property mismanagement.

By initiative of the new President Viktor Yushchenko, the privatization deal was dismissed by the court in June 2005, in order to sell the company again in a fair action. Mittal Steel acquired the 93.02 percent stake in Kryvorizhstal on October 24, 2005, for $4.81 billion. The price far exceeded analyst predictions of $3 billion, making it the largest privatization deal in former Soviet Union, and arguably in the world.