In February 2025, Ukrainian steelmakers increased steel production by 7.5% compared to the same period in 2024 – to 572 thousand tons from 532 thousand tons, but down 6.4% from the previous month, when they produced 611 thousand tons.
At the same time, Ukraine was ranked 21st among 69 countries in the ranking of global producers of these products by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
According to Worldsteel, in February 2025, steel production decreased compared to February 2024 in most of the top ten countries, except for India and South Korea.
The top ten steel producing countries in February are as follows: China – 78.922 million tons (minus 3.3% by February 2024), India – 12.662 million tons (plus 6.3%), Japan – 6.4 million tons (-8.5%), the United States – 6.03 million tons (-7%), and the Russian Federation – 5.8 million tons (-3.4%), South Korea – 5.154 million tons (0.7%), Turkey – 2.924 million tons (-5.6%), Brazil – 2.72 million tons (-1.6%), Germany – 2.702 million tons (-13.5%) and Italy – 1.813 million tons (-0.6%).
Overall, in February this year, steel production decreased by 3.4% year-on-year to 144.7 million tons.
For the first two months of the year, the top ten steel producing countries are as follows: China – 166.3 million tons (“minus” 1.5% by January-February 2024), India – 26.372 million tons (“plus” 6.8%), Japan – 13.186 million tons (-7.5%), the United States – 12.858 million tons (-1.3%), the Russian Federation – 11.739 million tons (-2, 5%), South Korea – 10.535 million tons (-2.8%), Turkey – 6.127 million tons (-3.7%), Brazil – 5.534 million tons (0.9%), Germany – 5.382 million tons (-13.1%) and Iran – 3.958 million tons (-23.1%).
Ukrainian steelmakers increased steel production by 9.9% in 2 months of this year compared to the same period in 2024, up to 1.183 million tons from 1.0756 million tons.
Overall, in January-February 2025, steel production decreased by 2.2% compared to the same period in 2024 to 301.958 million tons, ranking 20th.
As reported, in 2024, the top ten steel producing countries among 71 countries were as follows: China – 1 billion 5.090 million tons (-1.7%), India – 149.587 million tons (+6.3%), Japan – 84.009 million tons (-3.4%), the United States – 79.452 million tons (-2.4%), the Russian Federation – 70.690 million tons (-7%), South Korea – 63, 531 million tons (-4.7%), Germany – 37.234 million tons (+5.2%), Turkey – 36.893 million tons (+9.4%), Brazil – 33.741 million tons (+5.3%) and Iran – 30.952 million tons (+0.8%).
In total, 71 countries produced 1 billion 839.449 million tons of steel last year, which is 0.9% less than in 2023.
At the same time, Ukraine produced 7.575 million tons of steel in 2024, up 21.6% from 6.228 million tons in 2023. The country was ranked 20th in 2024.
In 2023, China produced 1 billion 19.080 million tons (at the level of the previous year), India – 140.171 million tons (+11.8%), Japan – 86.996 million tons (-2.5%), the United States – 80.664 million tons (+0.2%), the Russian Federation – 75, 8 million tons (+5.6%), South Korea – 66.676 million tons (+1.3%), Germany – 35.438 million tons (-3.9%), Turkey – 33.714 million tons (-4%), Brazil – 31.869 million tons (-6.5%) and Iran – 31.139 million tons (+1.8%). In total, 71 countries produced 1 billion 849.734 million tons of steel in 2023, which is 0.1% less than in 2022.
At the same time, Ukraine produced 6.228 million tons of steel in 2023, which is 0.6% lower than in 2022. The country was ranked 22nd in 2023.
In 2022, the top ten steel-producing countries were as follows: China – 1.013 billion tons (-2.1%), India – 124.720 million tons (+5.5%), Japan – 89.235 million tons (-7.4%), the United States – 80.715 million tons (-5.9%), the Russian Federation – 71.5 million tons (-7.2%), South Korea – 65, 865 million tons (-6.5%), Germany – 36.849 million tons (-8.4%), Turkey – 35.134 million tons (-12.9%), Brazil – 33.972 million tons (-5.8%), and Iran – 30.593 million tons (+8%).
Ukraine ranked 23rd in 2022 with 6.263 million tons of steel produced (-70.7%).
In total, 64 countries produced 1 billion 831.467 million tons of steel in 2022, which is 4.3% less than in 2021.
Nikopol Repair Plant JSC (NRP, Dnipropetrovs’k region) made a net profit in 2024, the amount of which has not yet been disclosed.
According to the company’s announcement in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) about holding a remote general meeting of shareholders on April 28, it is planned to consider the report of the company’s supervisory board on the results of its operations for 2024 and to make a decision based on the results of consideration of such a report.
The meeting will also hear the auditor’s conclusions and approve measures based on the results of the review of such a report. The agenda also includes approval of the company’s annual financial statements for 2024, approval of the results of financial and economic activities for 2024 and distribution of the company’s profit, approval of the annual report for the previous year.
The draft resolutions, a copy of which is available to Interfax-Ukraine, propose not to distribute the net profit earned by the company based on the results of financial and economic activities in 2024.
Nikopol Repair Plant specializes in the repair and maintenance of metallurgical machinery.
In 2023, the plant earned UAH 4.3 million in net profit against UAH 37.1 million in losses a year earlier, with net income growing by 86% to UAH 423.3 million, and in the first nine months of 2024, it increased its profit by 2.2 times to UAH 20.5 million, and net income by 6.5% to UAH 341.9 million.
According to the third quarter of 2024, Interpipe Nico TV and Centravis Production Ukraine each own 25.01% of NRZ shares, while Production and Commercial Enterprise Euvis LLC and Walbert Company Limited (Cyprus) own 24.99% of shares.
The authorized capital of NWR is UAH 9.772 million, with a par value of UAH 1 per share.
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) has imposed a ban on the import of animals from Slovakia to Ukraine due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in that country, the agency’s press service reports.
At the same time, it referred to official information from the European Union (through the Animal Disease Information System – ADIS) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
“The import of animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease virus, genetic material, raw materials and products from them to Ukraine from the Slovak Republic is prohibited,” the statement said, citing an order from the Chief State Veterinary Inspector of Ukraine.
The source of infection is animals with foot-and-mouth disease and those in the incubation period. The virus can be transmitted, in particular, through food from animals susceptible to the disease.
In January-February 2025, Ukraine increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 23.4% to $74.56 million. In February alone, aluminum imports amounted to $37.9 million. At the same time, exports of aluminum and aluminum products increased by 27.8% to $19.9 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum are its lightness, stamping resistance, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and non-toxicity of its compounds. In particular, these properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the production of cookware, aluminum foil in the food industry, and packaging. The first three properties have made aluminum the main raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently it has been replaced by composite materials, primarily carbon fiber). After the construction and production of packaging, such as aluminum cans and foil, the energy sector is the largest consumer of the metal.
In 2030, Ukrainian biomethane producers will be able to supply up to 1 billion cubic meters of this fuel to the EU, says Maciej Zaniewicz, Green Deal Ukraine project expert, senior analyst at Forum Energii (Poland), who is a co-author of the study “Potential for Cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the Field of Biomethane” by Green Deal Ukraine and the Ukrainian Climate Office.
“In our opinion, as well as in the opinion of Ukrainian analysts, the real volumes of biomethane production in Ukraine can be plus or minus 0.5% of EU demand. We are talking about about 1 billion cubic meters of biomethane in 2030,” Zanevych said in an interview with theInterfax-Ukraine energy project Energoreforma.
According to him, the most interesting thing in the study on the potential for cooperation in this area was that Ukrainian biomethane has already found buyers at market prices in the EU.
“At the same time, demand in the EU is so high that Ukrainian imports will not hinder the development of the industry within the EU,” the expert believes.
At the same time, he notes that Ukrainian biomethane “will not become some kind of export hit for Ukraine and a panacea for the EU.”
“What I mean is that it will not fully replace natural gas imports to the EU. Yes, it is an important component for diversifying gas supplies, but it will not completely replace imports,” Zanevych explained.
He also drew attention to the risk that pro-Russian circles will try to sow disinformation, “as it was with the trucks, as it was with the farmers.” “That allegedly Ukrainian biomethane producers will displace European producers. That’s why we wanted to make a reliable analysis based on objective data and show how it can actually be,” the expert said.
As reported, the first batch of Ukrainian biomethane of 67 thousand cubic meters was exported on February 7, 2025 by Vitagro, an energy holding whose plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters of biomethane per year operates in Khmelnytsky region. The exports were made to Germany.
On February 11, MHP’s biomethane plant Oril-Leader (Dnipropetrovs’k region) exported 27.4 thousand cubic meters of biomethane and became the second Ukrainian company to do so. MHP exported biomethane via gas pipelines across the Ukrainian-Polish border to Germany. The buyer was Vitol. The capacity of Oril-Leader is 11 million cubic meters per year.
The Gals Agro agricultural holding has built a biomethane plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters in Chernihiv region. The company has already been connected to the grid and is preparing to export its products.
At the Ukrainian Investment Congress in Kyiv in early March, Georgii Geletukha, Chairman of the Board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (BAU), said that Ukraine could soon become the main supplier of biomethane to the European Union, with the share of Ukrainian products in the European market reaching 20% in the future.
Geletukha emphasized that Europe aims to consume approximately 35 billion cubic meters of biomethane in 2030, while European production is currently estimated at 3 billion cubic meters. Given the current market trends, the EU will be able to increase its own production to 20 billion cubic meters of biomethane within five years.
The expert explained such a delay in the development of the biomethane market in Europe by the lack of large free areas of agricultural land and, accordingly, the inability to produce the necessary amount of raw materials for processing.
He drew attention to Europe’s new plans for 2030, which include the production and consumption of 100 billion cubic meters of biomethane by 2050. However, it will not reach this figure because of the lack of raw materials, the expert believes.
According to his assumption, if Ukraine were to produce up to 15 billion cubic meters of biomethane now, the EU would “buy everything with a bang.”
According to him, in Ukraine, the range of biomethane producers and potential exporters will expand in 2025. They will be joined by another MHP company, Teofipol Energy Company, and Józefów-Mykolaiv Biogas Company. In total, Ukrainian facilities will produce 111 million cubic meters of biomethane per year.
At a cost of EUR900 per 1 thousand cubic meters of biomethane produced from crop waste or from animal waste, including manure or litter, at EUR1100-1200 per 1 thousand cubic meters, Ukraine will be able to receive up to EUR100 billion annually from exporting these products to the EU, Geletukha predicts.
The study on the prospects of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of biomethane is available at https://greendealukraina.org/uk/products/analytical-reports/the-potential-of-ukraine-eu-biomethane-cooperation
PJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” ended 2024 with a net loss of UAH 15.803 million, while in 2023 it was UAH 13.955 million.
According to the company’s announcement in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the company’s shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 20, 2025, proposes to leave the net loss for 2024 uncovered.
According to the agenda, the shareholders will review the reports of the Supervisory Board and the auditor for the past year and approve the results of financial and economic activities.
PrJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” is the legal successor of PJSC “Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” (the name was changed in April 2017). Its principal activity is the production of building metal structures.
According to the third quarter of 2024, Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund Rift JSC owns 56.303% of the shares of PJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Metal Structures Plant”, Technological Renaissance LLC owns 42.8637%.
The authorized capital of the PrJSC is UAH 137.424 million, the par value of 1 share is UAH 0.01.
