In August this year, Ukraine-based steel mill Donetskstal Metallurgical Plant (DMZ) produced 38,000 mt of pig iron, down from levels of around 105,000 mt in the previous months, according to the company's preliminary results. The decrease in pig iron output was due to the lack of iron ore, which in turn was caused by problems relating to delivery by railway.

In the January-August period of this year, DMZ saw a 16.8 percent year-on-year decline in its pig iron production to 761,000 mt, while its rolled steel product output fell by 72 percent compared to January-August 2013 to 5,000 mt.