The Industrial Union of Donbas (IUD) attracted a US$ 300mn loan from Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank, Kommersant reported, citing a confirmation of the loan from a vice-president at IUD. No further details were disclosed.

Eugen Dubogryz: We expect the newly attracted funds will be mainly used to pay off fines related to breaches of contracts in 2008-09 at IUD’s subsidiaries, notably Alchevsk Steel (ALMK) and DMK Dzerzhinskoho (DMKD). IUD’s plants currently owe UAH 1.7bn (US$ 214mn) to Metinvest and UAH 47mn (US$ 6mn) to Poltava Iron Ore (PGOK), and a reported additional UAH 527mn (US$ 67mn) to state-owned Gaz Ukrainy for gas supplies. The loan facility will allow IUD’s mills, mainly Alchevsk (which faced the heaviest fine load), to return to a normal working schedule.