Release of Ukrainian iron ore concentrate in October

Ukrainian iron ore concentrate production increased in October for a month and a year, but lower domestic consumption reduced the output of agglomerates and iron ore pellets.

Last month, Ukraine produced 5.15 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate, increasing output by 8% compared to September and almost 1% from October 2016. The growth was accompanied by an increase in iron ore mining.

Exports of Ukrainian iron ore products in October amounted to 2.97 million tons, which is higher than in the previous month, but by 4%. lower than a year earlier. Export shipments as a result decreased by 3.1% on an annualized basis to 31.72 million tons in January-October.

Revenue generated by these exports increased to US $ 2.18 billion despite a 10-month drop in export tonnage, reflecting higher prices globally this year.

China remained the largest recipient of Ukrainian iron ore, taking 27.6% of total supplies in January-October, followed by Slovakia and Poland, which received 11.8% and 10.8%, respectively.

Domestic production of sinter and pellets declined last month and January-October as a whole, while domestic supplies of iron ore decreased by 8.9%. per year to 21.6 million tons in the first 10 months of this year. But domestic deliveries of iron ore products remained at the same level from a year earlier at 2.5 million tons in October, which is 6.4% more than in September.

Ukraine has not imported iron ore for seven months, reflecting lower domestic demand due to the destruction of steel facilities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Imports of briquetted iron (HBI) and direct reduced iron (DRI) fell 95% year on year to just 2,167 tonnes in Jan-Oct, all of which are from Russia. HBI and DRI imports during this period were $ 580,000, down 93 percent from a year earlier.