According to the preliminary data issued by the Ministry of Industrial Policy of Ukraine, in January to September 2009 Ukraine finished steel product output down by 27%YoY to 19.31 million tonnes and crude steel output down by 32% to 21.68 million tonnes.

In January to September this year, Ukraine steel pipe production down by 37% to 1.2 million tonnes pig iron production by 29% to 18.75 million tonnes. On the other hand, during the period in question the country production of coke went down by 21%YoY to 12.78 million tonnes.

In its iron ore segment, in January to September of the current year Ukraine produced 46.95 million tonnes of iron ore down by 22%YoY and 39.16 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate down by 19%YoY respectively. In addition, during the period in question, the country agglomerate production amounted to 25.66 million tonnes down by 29%YoY while its pellet production totaled 14.73 million tonnes down by 15%YoY.

During January to September 2009, scrap deliveries to Ukrainian mills decreased by 39%YoY to 3.17 million tonnes.

Market operators consider that the nine-month results of the Ukrainian mining and metallurgical sector have not demonstrated the expected recovery. Moreover, some of the local producers have started to speak about a possible second wave of crisis in October to November. However, analysts have expressed the view that steel production will hardly fall as strongly as at the end of last year however they also state that the revival of demand is expected to be observed only toward the end of 2010.

According to the preliminary data, in September this year the steel output in Ukraine decreased by 10% to 2.4 million tonnes due to the weakening of demand in foreign markets and also due to the lack of raw materials.

Ukrainian steelmakers have started to announce decreases in orders for October caused by reduced demand from the Middle Eastern countries and the reduction of exports to the Asian markets, where competition with Chinese steel exporters has increased. In addition, some of the Ukrainian steelmakers have had to abandon scheduled increases of their production capacities. (SteelOrbis/InterFax)

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