Ferrexpo, the iron ore company with assets in Ukraine and listed on the London Stock Exchange, has cautioned that the proposed unification of electricity distribution tariffs will have a significant negative impact on the Ukrainian industry. The company's press service, as reported by GMK Center, stated that this move could increase Ferrexpo's distribution costs by five times, leading to additional expenses of several hundred million hryvnias annually, provided the assets are operating at full capacity.

"We believe that the decision to unify tariffs, taken without considering the opinion of large electricity consumers, can cause significant damage to Ukrainian industry," the company said. "While Ukraine currently has two classes of energy consumption, the EU countries usually have three or more. This is logical because it is more profitable and cheaper to supply electricity to large energy-consuming facilities. Given that Ukraine should move towards European integration, the idea of combining these two classes looks unexpected. This approach is not economically sound and can lead to serious negative consequences for the Ukrainian economy."

Iron and steel enterprises, cement plants, agricultural enterprises, and other export-oriented production will primarily suffer from the unification of the tariff. According to estimates by Ukrmetalurgprom, if such a decision is made, mining and metals companies will be forced to pay an additional UAH 10 billion per year. The GMK Center estimates that the costs of companies in the industry may increase by €22 per MWh.

Furthermore, an attempt to introduce a single tariff in Ukraine will contradict Directive 2019/944 and Regulation 2019/943, the implementation of which is provided for by the Ukraine Facility program. These documents stipulate that distribution tariffs should be transparent, non-discriminatory, and consistent with real costs.