ARMA's Auction Fails Again: Iron Ore Pellets in Odesa Unsold

For the third time, the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) has failed to sell iron ore pellets stored in railway cars in the village of Stari Shompoly in Odesa region.

The auction was scheduled for February 7, but it was canceled due to the lack of bidders.

We are talking about 158 railcars, including those in Odesa region. They are combined into one lot with the railcars at the stations:

• Khutir-Mikhailovsky of the Konotop Directorate of the Southwestern Railway,
• Zernove of the Konotop Directorate of the Southwestern Railway in the town of Seredyna-Buda, Shostka district, Sumy region,
• "Uzhhorod2, Lviv Directorate, Lviv Railways, located on the line 263 km - Pavlove between Uzhhorod (4 km) and Pavlove (7.5 km) stations,
• "Klepariv", Lviv Directorate, Lviv Railways,
• "Mukachevo, Lviv Directorate, Lviv Railways, on the Stryi-Batyovo section.

Previously, the auction was scheduled to take place on January 10, with a halved starting price of UAH 12 million 965,300, but it failed due to lack of bidders, and a new one is scheduled for February 7.

Prior to that, an auction scheduled for December 20 with a starting price of UAH 25 million 930.5 thousand did not take place. The cargo in question belongs to the Russian group of companies Holding Company Joint Stock Company Metalloinvest (Holding Company Joint Stock Company Metalloinvest).

"Metalloinvest is one of the largest mining and metallurgical holdings in Russia. It comprises mining enterprises (Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky mining and processing plants) and metallurgical enterprises (Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant and Ural Steel). Metalloinvest also owns 80% of Hamriyah Steel, a steel plant located in the United Arab Emirates.

The entrepreneurs imported iron ore to Ukraine and planned to ship it by sea to third countries for sale.

However, they failed to sell the goods. Law enforcement officers found the raw materials at a railway station of the Odesa Railways and seized them during searches.

Кирило Бойко