Ukraine sees 40% decline in ferrous metals and iron ore export revenues

The export of metal products in January-August fell by almost half - to $638 million, accounting for 2.6% in the country's total exports, according to the report.

In August, Ukrainian export of ferrous metals made up $562.5 million, and that of metal products - $63 million.

At the same time, imports of ferrous metals in value terms decreased over the last eight months of 2015 by 1.9 times year-over-year - to $455.4 million. Imports of metal goods were down by 1.8 times, to $315.5 million.

It is noted that in January-August 2015 Ukrainian mining and metallurgical enterprises saw a 37.9% drop in revenues from exporting these products, amounting to $1.471 billion as compared to the same period last year, against a backdrop of a steep decline in prices for iron ore raw materials in the world markets.

According to statistical data, export of iron ore over the past eight months amounted to 30.266 million tonnes (up by 16.2% year-over-year), accounting for 5.93% in the total share of foreign currency export revenues.

Main buyers of Ukrainian iron ore are China with a 46.6% share in total revenues, Czech Republic (9.9%) and Poland (10.4%).

As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2014 Ukrainian iron and steel producers reported decline in revenues from ferrous metals export by 9.7%, to $12.929 billion, metal products - by 34.1%, to $1.707 billion.

Also, in 2014, Ukraine cut rolled metal production by 18% year-over-year, to 23.8 million tonnes, and production of steel by 17%, to 27.2 million tonnes. Production of pig iron was down by 15%, to 24.8 million tonnes.

In addition, in 2014 exports of iron ore increased 9% year-over-year, amounting to 41.2 million tonnes. Imports of iron ore to metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine decreased by 8%, to 2.7 million tonnes in 2014.