The basis of the economy of Ukraine, instead of metallurgy, will very soon be agriculture - expert

Last year, the production of steel in Ukraine decreased by 6.9 percent to 32 million 900 thousand tons. This year, domestic metallurgy will try to hold last year. The volumes of food export and agricultural products exceeded revenues from the metallurgical sector by one and a half times. Thus, in 2012, the metallurgy ceased to be the leading industry of the national economy and, according to the analyst of the Kesarerev Consulting company, Pavel Kuis, it will not be anymore.

"Metallurgy around the world is compressed, and this process will go at least 10 years. There is a pronounced demand for agrarian products and compression of demand for metallurgical products," he said at a meeting of the Ukrainian discussion club organized by the Gorshenin Institute.

According to the analyst, the cardinal changes in the structure of the world consumption of steel caused by changes in China negatively affect the exported oriented metallurgical industry of Ukraine. Therefore, despite the fact that the two Ukrainian companies Metinvest and ISD were included in the number of 40 largest steel producers in the world last year, metallurgy will no longer be the basis of the Ukrainian economy. “In the coming years, they will be an agricultural sector,” Pavel Kuis emphasized.