48°09′50″N 37°42′22″E / 48.1639°N 37.7060°E / 48.1639; 37.7060

Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant
Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Donetsk Oblast
Avdiivka Coke Plant
Location of the plant in Donetsk Oblast
Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Ukraine
Avdiivka Coke Plant
Location of the plant in Ukraine
Built1963
LocationAvdiivka, Ukraine
Coordinates48°09′50″N 37°42′22″E / 48.1639°N 37.7060°E / 48.1639; 37.7060
ProductsBenzine, Coal Tar, Coal oil, Ammonium Sulphate and Coke gas
Owner(s)Metinvest
Websiteakhz.metinvestholding.com

Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant (AKHZ) in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, was the largest coke producer in Ukraine and is owned by the company Metinvest,[1] which is in turn owned by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch. AKHZ also produced a variety of chemicals including benzine, coal tar, coal oil ammonium sulphate and coke gas.[2] The plant consisted of 13 main and 30 auxiliary workshops as well as service structural divisions.

In late 2023 the plant saw intense fighting during the fall Avdiivka offensive and was largely destroyed. According to Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov, it cannot be restored.[3]

History

The plant was constructed in 1963 by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to fulfil the coke needs of the nearby Mariupol Steel Works[4] as well as the availability of coal from local mines. Originally opening with 1 coke battery, this expanded to nine by 1980 with investment from the Soviet Union.[4] By 1988, 100 million tons of coke had been produced making it a major coke producer in Europe.[4] In 1993 as Ukraine gained independence, the plant was privatised as the Open Joint Stock Company 'Avdeevskiy Coke-processing Works'.[5][4]

Avdiivka Coke Plant
Administrative building of the plant after Russian shelling in 2023

Starting in mid-April 2014, Russian separatists captured several towns in Donetsk Oblast;[6][7] including Avdiivka.[8] In July 2014 fighting during which Ukraine secured the city from the Russian separatists[9]) damaged the plant, which was hit by 165 mortars rounds during the conflict.[10][11][12] The plant stopped working on 17 August 2014 due to the increasing violence.[13] On 5 February 2015, the workers of the plant published an open letter to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,[14] accusing the 25th Airborne Brigade and the volunteer Aidar Battalion of opening fire from residential areas, and asking that they be removed from the town. The letter also claimed that the town had been without water, heat and electricity for the previous six months and warned of the ecological catastrophe that could follow from further shelling of the plant. After being recaptured by the Ukrainian military, production resumed, albeit at one third capacity.[10] Much of the plant had been damaged and it was being managed from a Soviet era bunker underneath the site in order to avoid shelling.[10] In January 2017, Russian separatists shelled the town of Avdiivka with BM-21 Grad rockets, causing heavy damage to the plant's generators and disrupting gas production, as well as leaving the town without heat for several days.[15][16] The shelling killed the 10th factory employee to die since the start of the War in Donbass.[17]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces again bombarded and damaged the coke plant.[18][19] In May 2023 it was put on conservation. In November 2023, it was abandoned by last workers.[20]

Production

Before the war in Ukraine, production was 12,000 tons of coke per day, worth $2.4m.[10] However, this has fallen by two thirds due to the conflict.[10] Avdiivka Coke was one of the top-five coke producers in Europe and the largest coke-producer in Ukraine. Currently AKHZ produced about 40 types of products and the share of the plant exceeds 20% of gross coke output in Ukraine. It sold coke to Azovstal, Yenakiieve Steel and Ilyich Steel as well as to customers outside of the Metinvest group of companies such as Arcelor Mittal in Kryvyi Rih.[21] Avdiivka Coke currently produced coke at eight out of its nine coke batteries.

The plant has seen considerable investment over the last in environmental equipment and facilities including sulphur removal and heat exchangers to reduce energy consumption.[22] The plant was considered important to steel production in Ukraine.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "METINVEST :: Avdiivka Coke Plant". akhz.metinvestholding.com. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  2. ↑ "METINVEST :: Products and quality :: Products". akhz.metinvestholding.com. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  3. ↑ "Росія зруйнувала Авдіївський коксохім, його відновити буде неможливо – гендиректор «Метінвесту»" (in Ukrainian). Forbes. 2023-12-28.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "METINVEST :: About us :: Our history". akhz.metinvestholding.com. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  5. ↑ "Power structure Avdeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant". Avdeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant. 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  6. ↑ Ragozin, Leonid (16 April 2014). "Vladimir Putin is Accidentally Bringing Eastern and Western Ukraine Together". The New Republic.
  7. ↑ "Donbass defenders put WWII tank back into service".
  8. ↑ "Ukraine's army launches massive offensive operation on Donetsk".
  9. ↑ "TASS: World - Ukraine's army launches massive offensive operation on Donetsk". TASS. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
    "BBC: Ukrainian military 'seizes Avdiivka' in rebel Donetsk stronghold". KyivPost. 30 July 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
    Bloomberg: Ukraine pushes for UN peacekeepers, Ukraine Today (21 April 2015)
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Burridge, Tom (17 April 2015). "Ukraine crisis: The factory that has been shelled 165 times". BBC News. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  11. ↑ "Metinvest Group's Avdiivka Coke hit by artillery".
  12. ↑ "The enterprise Manager: Fire on coke under no Donetsk".
  13. ↑ "Avdiivka Coke completely disconnected and stopped working". Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 17 August 2014.
  14. ↑ "Сотрудники Авдеевского коксохима просят Порошенко вывести войска из города".
  15. ↑ "Ukraine clashes rage for third day, sparking EU concern". Agence France-Presse. January 31, 2017. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. An AFP reporter saw the separatists shell the town of about 20,000 people with repeated rounds of Grad multiple rocket systems and artillery fire from the early morning. "Right now, there is no power. We have not resolved problems with heating homes, and the gas pipe has been shattered," local Ukrainian army unit spokeswoman Olena Mokrynchuk told AFP [...] The town's heating is provided by a coke plant that has been heavily damaged by the falling shells. Plant director Musa Magomedov said it would be incredibly difficult to resume gas production were the factory's generators shut down. That would leave Avdiivka without a source of local power and uncertainty about its future.
  16. ↑ "Новини | Українська правда". pda.pravda.com.ua.
  17. ↑ "Violence flares in war-weary Ukraine as US dithers and Russia pounces". The Guardian. 14 February 2017.
  18. ↑ "Ukraine's largest steel firm says shells hit Avdiivka coke plant". Reuters. March 13, 2022 – via www.reuters.com.
  19. ↑ "ВС РФ обстреляли Авдеевку: уничтожено здание коксохимического завода (видео)" (in Russian). Фокус. 2023-03-08. Archived from the original on 2023-11-06.
  20. ↑ "Авдеевский коксохим: современные реалии и значимость для экономики Украины". GMK Center. 2023-11-09.
  21. ↑ "Ошибка 404". Archived from the original on 2012-05-05. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  22. ↑ "METINVEST :: Development :: Energy saving". akhz.metinvestholding.com. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  23. ↑ Adamczyk, Ed (January 31, 2017). "Ukraine prepares to evacuate town under siege; no electricity, no water". UPI. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. The town is near the rebel-held city of Donetsk, as well as near important roads used by rebel forces. It is also the home of a coke and chemical plant, Europe's largest of its kind. If the separatists captured the facility it could jeopardize Ukraine's steel industry.
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