Ukraine’s imports of goods in January 2025 increased by 7.8% y-o-y, from $5.1 billion to $5.5 billion, while exports decreased by 5.9%, from $3.4 billion to $3.2 billion, the State Customs Service reported on Monday.
According to information on its website, January imports are the highest since 2023, when they reached $4.8 billion, while exports returned to the level of 2023, when they amounted to $3.1 billion.
“Taxed imports (in January-2025 – IF-U) amounted to $4.1 billion, which is 74% of the total volume of imported goods. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports in January 2025 amounted to $0.49/kg,” the State Customs Service said in a statement.
It is noted that China imported the most goods to Ukraine – by $1.4 billion, Poland – by $487 million and Turkey – by $389 million.
Ukraine exported most of its goods to Poland – by $352 million, Italy – by $205 million, and Spain – by $202 million.
In the total volume of goods imported in January 2025, 68% were in the categories of machinery, equipment and transport – $2.2 billion (UAH 12.9 billion, or 27% of customs revenues, was paid to the budget), chemical products – $901 million (UAH 7.3 billion, 15%), and fuel and energy – $734 million (UAH 14.2 billion, 30%).
The top three most exported goods from Ukraine were food products ($1.8 billion), metals and metal products ($325 million), and machinery, equipment, and transport ($282 million).
In January 2025, a total of UAH 22.2 million was paid to the budget during customs clearance of exports of goods subject to export duties.
Meat processing enterprises in Ukraine in 2024 increased the purchase of farm animals for further processing by 11.5% compared to 2023 – up to 2.107 million tons, the State Statistics Service reported.
According to the data, in 2024, processing enterprises increased the processing of animals of their own production by 5.4% to 1.654 million tons. At the same time, industrial enterprises specializing in livestock production increased the supply of animals for processing by 43.1% to 444.2 thousand tons, while households reduced it by 18.6% to 8.3 thousand tons.
Pork meat prevailed in the structure of purchases by processing enterprises, accounting for 65.7%. The share of beef and poultry meat was 16.5% and 16% respectively.
At the same time, purchases of poultry meat in 2024 quadrupled to 72.6 thousand tons, pork – by 38.1% to 305 thousand tons, and beef decreased by 8.7% to 74.3 thousand tons.
The cost of purchasing beef in 2024 amounted to 53.44 UAH/kg, which is 11.2% more expensive than a year earlier, pork fell by 20% to 48.86 UAH/kg, and the cost of poultry remained unchanged at 38.51 UAH/kg.
Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovs’k regions were among the top 3 regions in terms of live animal supplies for processing. They supplied 640.74 thousand tons, 384.85 thousand tons and 342.91 thousand tons to processing companies, respectively.
The Kryvyi Rih branch of Zaporizhzhia Foundry and Mechanical Plant LLC (ZLMZ), established on the basis of the production shops of the Chief Mechanic Department of Zaporizhstal PJSC, a member of Metinvest Group, plans to extract groundwater to meet drinking, sanitary and industrial needs.
According to the documentation available to Interfax-Ukraine, the company plans to exploit seven artesian wells.
It is specified that currently the main source of water supply for drinking, sanitary and industrial needs is the water supply network of Kryvbasvodokanal. To ensure the full water consumption of the enterprise, it is additionally planned to operate a backup water supply source in the form of seven wells located on the territory of the enterprise. The capacity of the underground water intake will be 1008 cubic meters per day.
The artesian wells will be serviced by the existing technical staff, in one shift during the year (no permanent staff presence is required). The wells will be operated around the clock throughout the year. Water from the seven wells will be pumped through pipelines to two storage tanks with a capacity of 200 cubic meters each, connected to each other by the principle of communicating vessels, from which it will be supplied to the reverse osmosis plant.
After purification, groundwater will be stored in two 500 cubic meters tanks, each connected by a connected vessel. The water will then be supplied to the plant’s network via a pumping station.
In the main production, water is used to cool equipment, wash parts (in foundry, heat treatment, mechanical, forging and pressing operations) and for other purposes.
ZLMZ specializes in the production of cast iron castings, as well as alloy, low-alloy and high-alloy steels, metal structures and metal parts. The company produces a wide range of products, including castings for metallurgical plants, building structures, spare parts and assemblies. The main consumers of the plant’s products are enterprises of mining and metallurgical and other industries.
The enterprise is a part of Metinvest Group.
Where most businesses are moving to
11,083 companies changed their legal registration address in 2024, according to the Unified State Register. Most of them are engaged in wholesale trade and construction. Kyiv became the leader in terms of registered and discharged businesses: almost the same number of companies relocated here and there last year.
More than 11 thousand companies relocated from one region to another last year. Relocations of companies due to the war decreased by 18% over the year. It is also 25% less than before the full-scale war.
32% of these companies are engaged in wholesale trade, and another 6% in construction. Real estate businesses round out the top three migrant companies with 4.8%.
Most businesses left Kyiv – 36.6% or 4 thousand companies. Another 10% each left Kyiv and Dnipro regions.
At the same time, the same regions are the most popular places for business relocation. 28% of companies registered in Kyiv. Another 11% relocated to Kyiv region, and 10% to Dnipropetrovs’k region.
The most popular relocation routes are as follows:
The largest company by revenue in Q3 2024 that relocated was ZE.TEK (UAH 6.7 billion), which trades in gas. Last year, it moved from Rivne region to Kyiv, but returned in 2025.
KVORUM-NAFTA(UAH 5.7 billion), a paper products company, relocated from Mykolaiv region to Kyiv. And ZOLOTYI DRAKON (UAH 4 billion in revenue), a wholesale company, moved from Vinnytsia region to Kyiv.
Context.
It is worth noting that companies can change their legal addresses several times a year. For example, Albakor, a wholesale trade company (UAH 4 billion in revenue), moved 5 times last year from Zaporizhzhia region to Dnipro region and back. Currently, the business is registered in the Dnipro region.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/business-migration-2024
In 2025, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group will invest more than UAH 2.5 billion to modernize Kametstal, a steel plant built at the facilities of Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (Kamianske, Dnipro region).
According to the press release, KAMETSTAL has launched a record investment program for 2025.
It is noted that in difficult wartime, KAMETSTAL, along with other Metinvest Group companies, continues to work systematically on construction and reconstruction to improve production reliability and efficiency. Since the first days of January 2025, the company has started implementing this year’s investment program with a total planned budget of over UAH 2.5 billion.
Among its most important items is the overhaul of blast furnace No. 9, which will account for almost a third of the program’s budget, as its primary objectives are to maintain the efficiency of the main equipment and technological processes to ensure stable production of commercial products.
Another priority is a pilot investment project to build an alternative power plant with solar panels. No such projects have been implemented at Metinvest’s enterprises before. Pre-project studies are currently underway, and practical ways to address this new challenge are being identified.
“This year, a record-breaking total budget of $59.8 million is being invested in the program, a significant part of which is aimed at maintaining and updating the main production equipment, which is a springboard for further development and modernization of the enterprise. In total, we plan to implement 114 investment projects of varying importance during the year. Key equipment will be overhauled in the main production shops. The resumption of production will allow the company to renew its presence and enter new markets for this product, thus generating additional profit,” said Mikhail Koptev, Director of Capital Construction and Investments at Kametstal.
The company’s plans to modernize the energy sector infrastructure include a significant focus on the construction of water pipelines. KAMETSTAL’s water and gas pipelines are long-distance communications that require systemic upgrades. In the near future, we plan to install water pipes for the blast furnace shop.
The 2025 program also includes the start of construction of the first start-up complex for a large-scale project to build a new blast furnace gas collector, and one of the most important reliability projects is the modernization of the drive control system for continuous casting machine (CCM) No. 1.
“Kametstal was created on the basis of PJSC Dnipro Coke and Chemical Plant (DCKhZ) and PJSC Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK).
According to the 2020 report of Metinvest Group’s parent company, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owned 100% of the shares in DCCP.
US Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold a bilateral meeting during the Munich Security Conference, which starts on February 14, CBS News reports. According to the outlet, Zelenskyy will lead the Ukrainian delegation to the annual Munich Security Conference, which will run from February 14 to 16 in Germany.
During the event, Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with US Vice President Vance, who will also attend the conference.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lead the Ukrainian delegation to the Munich Security Conference next week, where the Ukrainian side will present the country’s position on ending the war and its vision of how to achieve “a lasting and durable peace,” said the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said he would take part in a security conference in Munich to talk about ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.
It is expected that Trump’s special envoy will also visit Kyiv after the Munich Security Conference, around the end of February.
The Munich Security Conference will take place on February 14-16.
