Ukrainian ferroalloy producers exported 48,400 tons of products in May

In May 2023, Ukrainian ferroalloy enterprises reduced the export of ferroalloys by 23.7% compared to the previous month – to 48.4 thousand tons. In monetary terms, deliveries of ferroalloys abroad during this period fell by 21.5% m/m – to $42.99 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

It is impossible to compare the indicators of May 2023 with the similar month of 2022 due to the lack of data.

In January-May 2023, Ukraine exported 256.42 thousand tons of ferroalloys for $223.09 million.

The main consumer of Ukrainian ferroalloys for the five months of 2023 was Poland (64.69%). The share of Turkiye in the total volume of exports was 9.22%. In the third place is Italy – 5.63%.

In the first quarter of 2023, ferroalloy enterprises of Ukraine reduced production by 2.7 times compared to the same period last year – to 70,000 tons.

Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure at the end of last year significantly worsened the situation for the ferroalloy industry, which depends more than others on stable energy supply. As a result of these strikes, the enterprises of the industry temporarily stopped their work partially or completely.

According to the executive director of UkrFA Sergiy Kudryavtsev, ferroalloy plants of Ukraine by the end of 2022 worked at 30% compared to pre-war indicators.

The Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant was forced to shut down due to power outages. In addition, the company depends on imported raw materials, so it cannot count on its stable flow due to the blockade of the ports.

Currently, the situation with energy supply has stabilized, but a new problem has appeared for ferroalloyers located in the Dnipropetrovsk region – the undermining of the Kakhovska HPP by Russian troops. In particular, NFP reduces production volumes due to the need to reduce water consumption for the production process due to the shallowing of the Kakhov reservoir.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 ferroalloys of Ukraine reduced exports production by 47.7% compared to 2021 – to 349.6 thousand tons. Revenue from the export of ferroalloys decreased by 46% y/y – to $564.14 million in January-August 2022 plants of the industry produced 399.46 thousand tons of products, which is 32% less y/y.