ArcelorMittal, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, charges that the countdown to elections is causing an upsurge of corruption.

ArcelorMittal, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, charges that the countdown to elections is causing an upsurge of corruption. Directors of local rail lines “do not care who leads them,” says Paramjit Kahlon, Arcelor’s CIS general director. As a result, he tells the EBA’s Global Outlook conference, ArcelorMittal’s shipments are down by 25% and “we do not know how to stop it, how to work next year.” He adds: “We have 100 of own locomotives, many wagons, we would like them to go, but they [Ukrzaliznytsia] did not allow us.” Of a plan to send ore concentrates to Eastern Europe, he tells Interfax-Ukraine: “Our goal was to send 300,000 tons a month. But we ship only one third – about 100,000 tons.”