Ukraine’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate in January-July increased by 13.4% YoY, 891,670 metric tons from 786,140 metric tons, the State Customs Service said. The value of imports of nickel ore and concentrate rose to $43.6 million from $38.4 million in January-July 2017, S&P Global Platts said.
Over January through June, Ukraine received 71% of the total imports of the commodity from Guatemala and 29% from Indonesia. Last year all Ukraine’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate came from Guatemala.
In July Ukraine imported 143,800 tons of the commodity, up from 96,080 tons in July 2017 and 136,850 tons imported in June, the customs service said.
Nickel ore is a raw material for production of ferronickel, which is used as an alloy addition in steel smelting. Ukraine’s only importer of nickel ore and producer of ferronickel, Pobuzhye Ferronickel Plant, is capable of processing about 1.6 million tons of wet ore to produce about 100,000 tons of ferronickel per year. The company exports most of the output. PFP produced 35,280 tons of ferronickel in the first six months of the year, down by 2.3% from 36,120 tons produced in January-June 2017. The company processed 679,050 tons of nickel ore in January-June, up by 6.1% YoY.
In 2017 Ukraine’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate decreased by 4.4% YoY, to 1.31 million tons. (UNIAN/Ukrainian metal)