Ukraine’s iron ore exports through seaports grew by 49% in March

According to the Ukrainian Seaports Authority, in March 2020, Ukrainian seaports increased export transshipment of iron ore by 49.1% to 2.96 million tons compared to March last year. Transshipment of ferrous metals in March dropped by 20.1% to 1.16 million tons.

In Q1, Ukrainian seaports increased export transshipment of iron ore by 48.2% to 7.8 million tons compared to the same period of the previous year.

Iron ore exports through seaports increased due to a 60.5% increase in transshipment in Pivdennyi Seaport to 7.1 million tons. Yuzhny Commercial Seaport SoE handled most iron ore cargo in this harbor.

The handling of ferrous metals for exports in Ukrainian ports decreased by 1.3% to 4.07 million tons in the first three months of the year.

Specifically, exports of rolled steel products decreased by 6.1% to 2.4 million tons. Pig iron transshipment increased by 31.6% to 675.7 thousand tons, scrap dropped by 52.7% to 7.4 thousand tons.

The following seaports increased exports of ferrous metals over the three months:

• Mariupol port — to 1.06 million tons (+ 28.6%);
• Port of Olvia — to 194.2 thousand tons (+ 21.1%);
• Odesa port — to 1.25 million tons (+ 21.7%);
• Izmail port — to 55.5 million tons (+ 3.4%).

The following seaports decreased exports of ferrous metals:

• Pivdennyi Seaport — to 211.1 thousand tons (-56.4%);
• Chernomorsk port — to 324.9 thousand tons (-23.8%);
• Kherson port — to 118.4 thousand tons (-23.3%);
• Mykolaiv port — to 844.8 thousand tons (-14%).

In January–March, Ukrainian seaports handled a total of 31.6 million tons of cargoes meant for export. This is 10.1% up from Q1 2019.

In 2019, transshipment of iron ore through Ukrainian seaports grew by 33% to 37.3 million tons, compared to the previous year. Furthermore, Ukrainian seaports transshipped 15.3 million tons of ferrous metals and 6.7 million tons of coal over the year.