Kryvbas (Ukrainian: Кривбас, full rarely used name Kryvorizkyi Iron Ore Basin, Ukrainian: Криворізький залізорудний басейн) is an important economic region in central Ukraine, specializing in iron ore mining and the steel industry. It is arguably the main iron ore region of Eastern Europe. Named after the city of Kryvyi Rih, the region occupies the southeastern part of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, as well as a small neighbouring part of the Kirovohrad Oblast.
The region possesses major deposits of iron ore and some other metallurgical ores. To exploit them, several large mining companies were founded here in the middle of the 20th century. Most of them are located in Kryvyi Rih itself, which is the longest city in Europe.
Kryvorizhstal (located in Kryvyi Rih) is the largest and most up-to-date steel company in the region (as well as in the whole Ukraine), comprising not only ore facilities, but also a major steel mill (the only one in the city). Other ore companies supply their raw materials to either Kryvorizhstal or steel mills outside the region (particularly to Dnipropetrovsk).
Steel companies of the region (except Mittal Steel-owned Kryvorizhstal) are controlled by either the Privat Group or the SCM. From the 1990s until 2004, these once united and state-owned industries went through a hard and scandal-ridden process of privatization.
There is also a major mining and processing factory under construction in the neighboring city of Dolynska (Kirovohrad Oblast). This advanced-technology project is co-funded by the governments of Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia.
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