The Russia-Ukraine war continues to shake the global economy deeply. The war between the two countries, which are the world's largest iron, steel and aluminum producers, makes the production of many raw materials, especially these products, difficult. Finally, important news came from the Russian siege in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol that will affect global production. It was stated that Azovstal, Europe's largest iron and steel factory, received a heavy blow after the Russian bombardment. Ukrainian Deputy Lesia Vasylenko announced the news to the world. Posting a video on his social media account, Vasylenko said, "One of Europe's largest chemical plants was destroyed. Azovstal is damaged. The economic losses for Ukraine are huge. The environment was devastated,” he said.
CAUTION WAS TAKEN
In the video shared by Vasylenko, gray and black smoke columns were seen rising from the Azovstal factory and explosions were seen in an industrial area. According to the news in the US publication VOA, Azovstal's general manager Enver Tskitishvili reportedly said on the messaging application Telegram, without specifying the extent of the damage, "We will return to the city, we will rebuild and revive the business." On the other hand, on February 24, when the Russian invasion began, various measures were taken to reduce the damage to the factory. In this context, some of the furnaces were closed and production was interrupted and some sections were closed.
5.3 MILLION CAPACITY
Europe's largest iron and steel production facility Azovstal continues its activities under the roof of Metinvest group owned by Ukraine's richest businessman Rinat Akhmetov. The factory, which was founded in 1930, produces many iron and steel products such as cast plates, bars, rails, parts, as well as various industrial products such as liquid argon and liquid nitrogen. Azovstal, which has an annual crude steel capacity of 5.3 million tons, has five blast furnaces and two 350-tonne oxygen furnaces. On the other hand, Ukraine produced 21.4 million tons of crude steel in 2021.
DOES IT AFFECT TURKEY?
Turkey imports 4.9 million tons of steel from Russia and 2.2 million tons from Ukraine. Veysel Yayan, Secretary General of the Turkish Steel Producers Association (TÇÜD), said in a statement he made recently, “When the impact of Russia's occupation of Ukraine on the Turkish steel industry is evaluated, while trade with Russia, which is our biggest supplier, is expected to continue at similar levels, Ukraine's It is predicted that there may be a decrease in imports from However, since the production of imported product groups is also carried out in our country, we consider that this situation will not have a negative impact on our steel industry.”
OIL GIANTS LEAVING RUSSIA
While the war continues, sanctions against Russia continue. Finally, petroleum engineering companies, known as critical players in the energy market, announced their decision to withdraw from Russia one after the other. According to the news in Bloomberg HT, the US company Halliburton announced that it suspended its business in Russia, while Schlumberger and Baker Hughes followed Halliburton. Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes, said the crisis in Ukraine is a cause for concern and they support diplomatic efforts. Simonelli stated that they condemn violence against families affected by this crisis. The share of Russia in the total revenues of Baker Hughes was at the level of 5 percent. American oilfield services company Halliburton said on Friday it was suspending Russian operations in response to US sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
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