According to Mr Vladimir Vlasyuk director of the state monitoring and consulting company Ukrpromzovnishexpertyza, January to June this year, Ukraine saw a huge increase in its rolled steel product exports to China from 11,000 tonnes in the same period last year to 970,000 tonnes.
Mr Vlasyuk said such an increase in the Ukrainian exports to China was conditioned by the decrease of the production cost of the Ukrainian steel products, mostly due to the reduction of iron ore and coke prices.
He said that “Currently, the lowest production cost of steel is in Russia at USD 200 per tonne to USD 210 per tonne followed by Ukraine at USD 255 per tonne China at USD 330 per tonne and Turkey at USD 370 per tonne.”
According to the information issued by Ukrpromzovnishexpertyza, in January to June 2009 Ukraine’s exports of rolled steel products to the Middle East decreased by ten percent to 2.863 million tonne the volume to EU countries went down by 50% to 1.426 million tonne while the export figure for the US dropped by 70% to 503,000 tonnes.
According to Ukrainian information analytical center Gosvneshinform, during the first six months of 2009 Ukraine exported rolled steel products for a total value of USD 4.8 billion. (SteelOrbis)