Metinvest Group's Avdiyivka coking and chemical plant, Europe's largest enterprise in its sector, has started to work at full capacity for the first time in three years of Donbas hostilities after new high voltage power lines have been built.

Avdiyivka coke plant's eighth coke-oven battery delivered produce on May 24, Metinvest said in a statement.

Intensive shelling in August 2014 cut the plant off the power grids and it had to suspend production. Due to a sharp temperature drop, the refractory masonry of coke-oven battery No. 8 was damaged. The plant's workers managed to repair it on their own, however, irregular power supply did not allow the unit to be put into operation for a long time.

Thanks to the construction of new high-voltage lines "Tsentralna - Avdiyivka coke plant" and "Kotliarevsky - Avdiyivka coke plant," the enterprise was able to cease the idle state and restart equipment of all structural divisions.

The re-launch of the eighth coke-oven battery will let the plant boost output to 8,500 tonnes of furnace coke per day.

As was reported, Avdiyivka coke plant in January-April 2017 reduced output of 6%-humidity gross coke by 27.7% year-over-year, to 716,000 tonnes.

In 2016, its output was 2.397 million tonnes of furnace coke and in 2015 it was 1.996 million tonnes.

The plant is in the zone of active military operations since 2014. Since then it has been hit by over 320 shells, 12 plant workers have been killed, over 50 workers have been wounded. The plant has suspended its work 15 times, it has been cut off the power grids over 200 times.

It is part of Metinvest Group whose major shareholders are PrJSC System Capital Management with 71.24% and Smart-Holding with 23.76%.

LLC Metinvest Holding is Metinvest Group's managing company.