Getting Interpipe’s steel transmission pipes to
Texas oil companies and its railway wheels to
European high-speed train operators has been
put on hold. Hundreds of the plant’s roughly
10,000 employees have joined the fight against
Russia. Others have fled; a remaining skeleton
crew runs its canteens and makes spikey metal
obstacles to block Russian tanks and convoys.
Its bomb shelters house dozens of local families
at night.
“It was a hard choice to stop production. We
had plenty of orders, a lot of customers awaiting
our material. But if you have to choose between
safety, and possible profits, I think the answer
is obvious,” said Bibik, who’s worked at the
company for nearly two decades. “The most
important thing we have is life and we really
need to take care of the people we love.”
Similar production halts have spread across
other industries in Ukraine, motivated not just
by safety concerns but also because the war
and mass exodus of refugees have closed off
roads and railways to commercial freight traffic.
Some of Interpipe’s finished products bound for
overseas export are now stalled at the Black Sea
port of Odesa.
Ukraine accounts for only about 0.3% of the
world’s exports, while Russia’s share is about 1.9%,
according to a report by the Dutch bank ING.
Still, some industries doing business with these
nations are starting to feel the war’s impact.
For Russia, a key producer of energy, steel and
raw metals such as nickel, copper, platinum and
palladium — many of which are important to
the auto industry — the supply concerns are
tied to punishing Western economic sanctions