Capacity utilization rate of industrial companies in Ukraine is growing

By 1 April 2019, capacity utilization rate of industrial companies increased by 0.3 percentage points compared to 1 January and reached 68.4%. This is evidenced by data of the State Statistics Service.

The iron ore mining sector demonstrates the highest values of this indicator. The sector’s capacity utilization rate reached 89.2% at the beginning of the year and remains at this level.

This is facilitated by the situation in the global market. The collapse of a Brazilian tailings dam owned by Vale SA triggered an iron ore deficit in the first quarter and, consequently, a hike in iron ore prices. The situation was aggravated by Cyclone Veronica, due to which Australia had to reduce the supply of iron ore.

On Friday, 10 May, Chinese iron ore futures (62%) on the Dalian Commodity Exchange raised by 2%, up to $97.24 per ton. This is the highest figure since 7 July 2014.

Due to a combination of factors, export of ore and iron ore concentrates from Ukraine increased by 15.03% in January–April, up to $1.049 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.

Against this background, Ukrainian steelmakers have increased their ore production capacities to the record level.

For more details on the utilization of production capacities of industrial companies see GMK Center’s infographics.