Ukraine has the opportunity to increase the supply of iron ore to Slovakia — the Ministry of Economy

Ukraine has the opportunity to increase the supply of iron ore to Slovakia. This was noted by the First Deputy Prime Minister – the Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Yulia Svyridenko, during a meeting with the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, Karel Hirman. It is stated on the department’s website.

According to her, the close economic ties between the countries have been strengthening recently.

“In 9 months, a 30% increase in trade between the countries was recorded, and there is potential for further growth. In particular, Ukraine has the opportunity to significantly increase supplies of iron ore to Slovakia,” said Yulia Svyridenko.

The strengthening of trade between the countries will also be facilitated by the one-year extension of the agreement on freight transportation by motor vehicles – negotiations on this issue are currently ongoing between Ukraine and the EU, and the Ukrainian side hopes for the support of Slovakia.

During the meeting, the parties also paid attention to the development of transport corridors and elimination of bottlenecks in logistics. In particular, the prospects for the development of crossings in Uzhhorod, transport corridors Chop-Kosice, Mukachevo-Kosice, etc. were discussed. According to Karel Girman, Slovakia is extremely interested in expanding the possibilities of transport connections with Ukraine.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in January-October 2022, Ukrainian miners, according to customs statistics, sent abroad 22.44 million tons of iron ore, which is 38.9% less compared to the same period in 2021.

In 10 months of 2022, Slovakia consumed the most Ukrainian iron ore – 19.16%. Poland is in the second place with 16.65%, and the Czech Republic is in third place with 16.32%. Since the beginning of the war, European countries have become the main importers of raw materials from Ukraine, displacing China from this list, which at the beginning of 2022 was the largest consumer of Ukrainian iron ore.

As GMK Center reported earlier, at the beginning of December, the growth of iron ore quotations for 5 weeks in a row was recorded. January iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange for the week of Nov. 25-Dec. 2 rose by 3.9% from a week earlier – to 758 yuan/t ($112.1/t).