Ferrexpo, a mining company with assets in Ukraine, ended the first half of 2026 with a net loss of $14.9 million, which is 13.2 times less than the figure for the first half of 2025, according to the company’s report published on Friday.
According to the report, revenue fell by a factor of 2.3 to $196 million due to a decline in sales volumes, whilst EBITDA was negative at $4 million, compared with a positive figure of $4 million in the first half of 2025, reflecting the combined impact of lower sales volumes and selling prices, as well as rising production costs.
Following the publication of the financial results this morning, the shares rose from 28.9 pence to 32.88 pence, and closed at 32.48 pence, representing a 13.33 per cent increase on the previous day’s closing price. The last time the shares were this high was more than five months ago.
Ferrexpo noted that it had deliberately reduced capital expenditure (CapEx) to $10 million from $28 million in January–June 2025, allocating 88 per cent of these expenditure to projects necessary to sustain operations and only 12 per cent to development projects.
Due to prolonged delays in VAT refunds and the resulting reduction in financial liquidity, the group was forced to reduce production to a single pellet production line, the report states.
Total commercial output for the first half of the year amounted to 1.556 million tonnes, which is 40 per cent less than in the previous half-year (ending 31 December 2025) and 54 per cent lower than in the first half of 2025.
The production mix in the first half of 2026 consisted of 89 per cent pellets and 11 per cent marketable concentrate, compared with 61 per cent and 39 per cent respectively in the first half of 2025, when the higher proportion of concentrate production provided additional market opportunities during a period of lower demand for pellets and smaller market premiums, Ferrexpo noted.
Interim Chairman of the Board Lucio Genovese recalled that in early September the company had raised $100 million through a rights issue, which significantly strengthened its liquidity position and provided additional financial stability and greater flexibility to manage the ongoing operational and financial pressures facing the business.
“However, the additional capital does not resolve the underlying issues arising from the prolonged 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 noted.
On Friday, Ferrexpo clarified that C1 production costs had risen to US$81.3 per tonne from US$77.1 in the first half of 2025, due to increased mining and maintenance activities, the impact of higher electricity and fuel prices, and an increase in staff costs.
It is noted that the group has made significant efforts to reduce costs in order to maintain financial stability. These measures include reducing employees’ working hours, cutting back on the procurement of goods and services, and suspending all non-critical capital expenditure, overheads and corporate social responsibility expenditure.
Furthermore, there were no impairment losses on assets in the first half of 2026, whereas in the first half of 2025 they amounted to $154 million.
In the report, Genovese emphasised that the continued suspension of VAT refunds by the Ukrainian tax authorities remains a significant financial challenge: as at 30 June, the net VAT balance due for refund stood at $82.7 million, and as at 24 September, the State Tax Service had suspended VAT refunds totalling 3.885 billion UAH, or $86.9 million.
The report also notes that during the first six months of 2026, Ferrexpo received news of the deaths of a further 11 colleagues serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, bringing the total number of fatalities since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion to 67, whereas in 2024 and 2025 the number of fatalities stood at 11 each year.
According to the report, as at the end of June 2026, 804 Ferrexpo employees were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and 218 had been demobilised, whereas at the end of 2025 the figures were 771 and 194 respectively, and a year earlier still – 706 and 160.
“” “” “” Ferrexpo holds a 100 per cent stake in Eristovsky GOK LLC, a 99.9 per cent stake in Belanovsky GOK LLC and 100 per cent of the shares in Poltavsky GOK PJSC.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) suspended trading in Ferrexpo shares at the start of May due to the company’s failure to publish its annual financial statements on time, and resumed trading on 7 September.
In 2025, the company’s revenue fell by 16 per cent to $787 million, its EBITDA fell by a factor of 2.5 to $28 million, whilst its net loss rose by almost 4.5 times to $223.9 million.