The fall in steel exports from the Donetsk region had a negative impact on the region's foreign exchange earnings

In the first quarter of 2019, foreign exchange earnings from the export of goods from the Donetsk region (excluding part of the temporarily occupied territory) amounted to 1107 million US dollars. According to the Main Department of Statistics in the Donetsk region, the region provided 9 percent of the total value of exported goods in Ukraine as a whole and took third place after the city of Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk region.

At the same time, compared to January-March 2018, the export of goods from the Donetsk region decreased by 2.8 percent. A decrease in foreign exchange earnings from the export of goods was recorded for the first time since 2016.

This is largely due to the fact that since the beginning of 2019 there has been a negative downward trend in prices in foreign markets for the sale of ferrous metals, which in the first quarter provided 85.2 percent of foreign exchange earnings from the export of all goods. The value of export deliveries of ferrous metals amounted to USD 942.8 million, which is 0.8 percent less than in the first quarter of 2018. The weighted average price of a ton of exported metal decreased by 3.5 percent, as a result of which 34.3 million dollars of foreign exchange earnings were not received. For comparison: the export of all goods by the enterprises of the region decreased in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 by USD 31.7 million.

In the first quarter of 2019, enterprises of the Donetsk region exported products to 96 countries of the world.

As before, Italy is in first place, where goods worth $ 243 million (22 percent of the total) were exported in the quarter, but this is 18.7 percent less than in the first quarter of 2018. In foreign exchange earnings from the supply of goods to Italy, the share of ferrous metals amounted to 95.8 percent, with 85.6 percent being semi-finished products made of carbon steel, which fell the most (by 11.8 percent). Exports of goods to the European market decreased by 13.9 percent. If in the first quarter of 2018 more than half (52.2 percent) of all foreign exchange earnings were received from the supply of goods to European countries, then in the first quarter of 2019 it was 46.2 percent.

Foreign exchange earnings from the export of goods to the Russian Federation, which continued to rank second, decreased in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the first quarter of 2018 by 6.5 percent and amounted to USD 136.1 million, or 12.3 percent of the total.

At the same time, 61.7 percent of the region's mechanical engineering products exported to Russia. In foreign exchange earnings from the export of goods to this country, the share of machine-building products amounted to 27.1 percent, while in the region as a whole - 5.4 percent. The total volume of exports of engineering products in the first quarter of 2019 increased compared to the first quarter of the previous year�