In January–August of this year, Ukraine increased its ferroalloy exports in physical terms by 39.7% compared to the same period last year, from 52,806 thousand tons to 73,774 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), in monetary terms, ferroalloy exports increased by 29.5% to $82.611 million.
The main exports were to Poland (28.92% of shipments in monetary terms), Algeria (23.13%), and Turkey (19.31%).
In addition, in the first eight months of 2025, Ukraine imported 27,270 thousand tons of this product, a decrease of 59.7% compared to the same period in 2024. In monetary terms, imports fell by 54.1% to $51.843 million. Imports were mainly from Norway (22.96%), Kazakhstan (11.81%), and France (10.72%).
As reported, the Pokrovsky Mining and Processing Plant (PGZK, formerly Ordzhonikidze Mining and Processing Plant) and the Marganetsky Mining and Processing Plant (MGZK, both in Dnipropetrovsk region), which are part of the Privat Group, stopped mining and processing raw manganese ore in late October-early November 2023, while NZF and ZZF stopped smelting ferroalloys. In the summer of 2024, ferroalloy plants resumed production at a minimum level.
PGZK and MGZK did not produce any products in 2024, while in 2023, PGZK produced 160.31 thousand tons of manganese concentrate, and MGZK was idle.
In 2024, Ukraine reduced its exports of ferroalloys in physical terms by 4.45 times compared to 2023, to 77,316 thousand tons from 344,173 thousand tons. in monetary terms, exports fell 3.4 times – to $88.631 million from $297.595 million. At the same time, the main exports were to Poland (27.40% of supplies in monetary terms), Turkey (21.53%), and Italy (19.82%).
In addition, last year Ukraine imported 82,259 thousand tons of this product compared to 14,203 thousand tons in 2023 (a 5.8-fold increase). In monetary terms, imports increased 3.3 times, from $42.927 million to $140.752 million. Imports were mainly from Poland (32.71%), Norway (19.55%), and Kazakhstan (13.90%).
The business of ZZF, NZF, Stakhanov ZF (located at NKT), Pokrovsky and Marganetsky GZK was organized by PrivatBank prior to the nationalization of the financial institution. The Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by the EastOne group, created in the fall of 2007 as a result of the restructuring of the Interpipe group, as well as the Privat group.
The Sukha Balka mine (Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region), part of Alexander Yaroslavsky’s DCH group, has installed a new mine cage at the Yuvileina mine, manufactured by specialists from PJSC Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMZ).
According to the DCH Steel corporate newspaper, the repair work lasted from August 4 to August 31. Much of this time was spent on preparation: the surface of the cage was carefully treated with a protective coating and painted to extend its service life in aggressive underground conditions. According to the manufacturer’s specifications, the coating should reliably protect the surface for about 10 years. Only after this stage did the miners begin the actual replacement of the equipment.
“We installed the base of the cage in the mine shaft at the zero mark, and then installed the second and third floors in turn, connecting the frame. After that, we attached the other trailer equipment. After the cage was installed, electricians connected the electrical equipment, and specialists from the energy laboratory checked its quality and gave permission for use,” explained Maxim Kopeyka, chief mechanic of the Yubileinaya mine, as quoted by the publication.
As reported, last year, the DMZ’s specialized metallurgical equipment repair shop manufactured lifting equipment for the Yuvileina mine. The mine cage has three floors, weighs 15 tons, and can carry 126 miners at a time.
It is also reported that in September-October, railway workers will repair three turnouts at the Zakhidna station at DMZ. Scheduled repairs of the turnouts will ensure the safety of railway transport when transporting billets for rolling shop No. 2 and finished rolled metal products to consumers.
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, cast iron, rolled products, and products made from them, such as channels and angles, special profiles for mechanical engineering and the mining industry. On March 1, 2018, the DCH Group signed an agreement to purchase the Dnipro Metallurgical Plant.
The Sukha Balka mine is one of the leading enterprises in the mining industry in Ukraine. It extracts iron ore using underground methods. The mine includes the Yuvileina and Frunze mines. In May 2017, the DCH Group acquired the mine from the Evraz Group.
The leader of the European Parliament’s largest party, the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, has announced the initiation of a procedure to expel Serbian ruling SNS party of Aleksandar Vucic from the right-wing conservative party group. This is reported by Euractiv.
It is reported that Weber’s initiative is related to the ongoing anti-government protests in Serbia, provoked by the tragic collapse of the canopy at the train station in November 2024. Sixteen people died as a result.
Symbolically, the SNS party was an associate member of the EPP, which means establishing cross-party ties with limited rights and without full membership. Serbia, meanwhile, remains a candidate country for EU accession.
After announcing the procedure, Weber emphasized: “The EPP is not turning a blind eye to what is happening in Serbia.”
https://t.me/relocationrs/1394
Serbia’s ElevenEs (Subotica) continues to develop its industrial production project for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries: the current line in Subotica operates as Europe’s first LFP cell production site, and the company is finalizing plans to build a “mega-factory” with a target capacity of 1 GWh per year and is working on further expansion to 8 GWh. This is evidenced by company and management announcements for 2023-2025, as well as recent industry reports.
The launch was reported in April 2023: the company specializes in prismatic LFP cells and was the “first” operating industrial site of this type in the EU. At launch, the company declared an output of 300-500 MWh/year, with ramp-up in 2024-25.
The corporate website states that the team has 100+ employees; in May 2025, a new type of prismatic “blade” cell EDGE574 for transportation and industrial applications was introduced.
In an interview on February 11, 2025. ElevenEs CEO Nemanja Mikač said the company is “finalizing the project” to build a 1 GWh/year plant; 2026 is described as a “key year” for scaling. At the end of May 2025, the company confirmed a 1 GWh “mega-factory” target and plans to build an 8 GWh gigafactory in Serbia. Timing and sources of financing were not disclosed.
Recycling/disposal. In June 2025, ElevenEs announced an agreement to establish a JV for LFP waste/spent cell recycling, tying the initiative to future scale-up of production.
Nickel- and cobalt-free LFP chemistry is valued for its safety, resource and cycle cost – these are the niches ElevenEs is targeting (energy storage, commercial transportation, “industrial” applications). For Serbia, the project means the formation of a link in the European battery supply chain, and for the EU it means diversification of LFP production in the region.
A number of strategic figures in the public space (e.g. possible transition to tens of GWh by 2030) are indicative and depend on financing and signed off-takes; industry studies separately note the risk factors of European battery projects. We rely on confirmed near-term targets (1 and 8 GWh) and the actual operating site in Subotica.
https://t.me/relocationrs/1395
In the first eight months of 2025, Ukraine increased imports of tin and tin products by 42.9% to $2.632 million (in August – $294,000).
Exports fell almost threefold to $104,000 compared to $344,000 last year (in August – $3,000).
Tin is mainly used as a safe, non-toxic, corrosion-resistant coating in its pure form or in alloys with other metals. The main industrial applications of tin are in white tin (tinned iron) for the manufacture of food containers, in solders for electronics, in domestic piping, in bearing alloys, and in coatings of tin and its alloys. The most important tin alloy is bronze (with copper).
The Kametstal plant, part of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group (Kamensk, Dnipropetrovsk region), has significantly increased its production of continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology due to increased demand.
According to the company, one of the current trends in the metal market is increased demand for continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology.
“Thanks to systematic measures, the team at Kametstal’s converter shop exceeded its initial targets for this year and achieved a monthly production of 15,000 tons of high-quality billets at the continuous casting machine (CCM-1), which is twice as much as last year’s monthly production volumes,” the press release states.
At the same time, it is noted that the development and improvement of steel casting technology using stop mechanisms on the continuous casting machine (CCM) No. 1 remains in the focus of the company’s specialists, as it allows them to obtain metal with higher requirements for chemical composition and macrostructure, which yields higher profits than conventional billets. One of the primary goals set by the steelmakers is to increase the production of billets using this technology, and they are persistently pursuing this goal. This year, 58,433 thousand tons of high-quality billets have already been cast on the first machine, thus exceeding the annual production volume for 2024 by more than 5 thousand tons in eight months.
“Among the priority measures for achieving ambitious goals is the development and improvement of the parameters for the automatic start of the machine’s streams during stop casting, which has a positive effect on the quality and productivity of casting by minimizing the human factor in the process. While at the beginning of 2025, successful starts of the continuous casting machine in “Auto Start” mode accounted for almost 80%, today, technologists are already performing more than 90% of successful starts without switching to manual mode,” the plant emphasizes.
Also this year, as part of the program to upgrade the main steelmaking equipment, an investment project was implemented – during the first stage of reconstruction at continuous casting machine No. 1, frequency converters and cable and wire products were replaced, and the software was updated. As a result, the operation of the pulling stoves has improved, and thus the smoothness of pouring and the stability of launches.
After the implementation of this investment project, the first machine achieved a record production of high-quality hot-rolled coils in July – 16,159 thousand tons, while last year the maximum monthly production of such products was 8,256 thousand tons.
An important vector is the increase in the seriality of melts during stop casting of steel. Additional technological measures have made it possible to achieve an average seriality of almost six melts this year, while the average seriality in 2024 was 5.3 melts.
As reported, Metinvest will invest more than UAH 2.5 billion in the modernization of Kametstal in 2025.
Kametstal is part of the Metinvest Group.
