Mining company Ferrexpo, which owns assets in Ukraine, ended the first half of 2026 with a net loss of $14.9 million, 13.2 times lower than the figure for the first half of 2025, according to the company's report published on Friday.
According to the report, revenue fell 2.3 times to $196 million due to lower sales volumes, while EBITDA was negative at $4 million, compared with positive EBITDA of $4 million in the first half of 2025, reflecting the combined impact of lower sales volumes and selling prices, as well as higher production costs.
Ferrexpo said it deliberately reduced capital expenditures (CapEx) to $10 million from $28 million in January-June 2025, allocating 88% of these expenditures to projects necessary to maintain operations and just 12% to development projects.
Due to a prolonged delay in VAT refunds and the resulting decline in financial liquidity, the group was forced to reduce production volumes to a single pellet production line, the report said.
Total commercial production in the first half of the year amounted to 1.556 million tonnes, down 40% from the previous half-year period (which ended on Dec. 31, 2025) and 54% from the first half of 2025.
The production mix in the first half of 2026 consisted of 89% pellets and 11% commercial concentrate, compared with 61% and 39%, respectively, in the first half of 2025, when the higher share of concentrate production provided additional market opportunities during a period of lower demand for pellets and lower market premiums, Ferrexpo noted.
Interim Executive Chair Lucio Genovese recalled that in early September the company had a successful $100 million equity raise, which materially strengthened the group's liquidity position, providing additional financial resilience and greater flexibility to manage the continuing operational and financial pressures facing the business.
"The additional capital does not however remove the underlying challenges as a result of the continued withholding of VAT refunds, the war in Ukraine, constraints on logistics and energy infrastructure, and the need to maintain disciplined management of cash and working capital," he said.
