A lot of works in Ukraine are being cut for scrap metal, as it can be profitably sold to foreigners.

There are minor scrap buyers. They avoid taxes and pay in cash. The scrap ends up at converter centers – one-day companies that can give invoice. Through such firms large buyers can purchase “clean” scrap. After that metal sails to Turkey.

The open gates for scrap export are the billions of UAH in taxes that have never reached Ukrainian treasury. Turkey is not the only scrap importer, but it does consume 70% of Ukrainian exports. While Ukrainian metal works are suffering from the scrap shortage.

Last year the local market needed 850 thousand tons of scrap more, at the same time 1200 thousand tons were exported. If it goes on like this, by the end of the year all the steel-smelting manufacture would have stopped, as it needs scrap for processing. But the prospects of the coming catastrophe have finally reached the government. The parliament has adopted the decree on scrap export duty increase from 10 euro to 35 euro per ton. (Ukrainian metal)

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