In January-February 2026, imports of tin and tin products increased by 18.8% to $727 thousand (in February – $559 thousand).
Exports of tin and tin products in January-February 2026 amounted to $248,000 (in February – $23,000), while in January-February 2025 they amounted to $5,000.
In 2025, imports of tin and tin products increased by 36.5% to $4.352 million.
Exports of tin and tin products amounted to $241,000, compared to $389,000 in the 12 months of 2024.
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 tinplate (tinned iron) for the manufacture of food containers, in solders for electronics, in domestic piping, in bearing alloys, and in coatings made of tin and its alloys. The most important tin alloy is bronze (with copper).
Ukrainian manufacturer of passive fire protection systems Kovlar Group is expanding its presence in the Moldovan market and expects to make this direction one of the first stable export channels for its products.
According to the company, it has been supplying fire protection products for engineering communications to Moldova for the past two years. Kovlar Group notes that there is virtually no domestic production of passive fire protection materials on the Moldovan market, so local partners are showing interest in Ukrainian systems.
The company specifies that regular technical meetings are held with Moldovan specialists to introduce the products, during which issues of fire protection system design, national regulatory requirements, and features of material application are discussed. According to preliminary agreements, the Moldovan side plans to purchase a significant part of Ammokote products.
The presence of Ammokote products on the Moldovan market is also confirmed by open specialized resources: in particular, the specialized platform Antikor.md features Ammokote products for fire protection of engineering communications with technical documentation and certificates.
Kovlar Group LLC was founded in 2015 in Kyiv and is the largest manufacturer of passive fire protection products in Ukraine. According to OpenDataBot, the company’s authorized capital is UAH 1.2 million, and its ultimate beneficiaries are Kostyantyn Kalafat (40%), Andrii Ozeychuk (35%), and Liubov Vakhitova (25%). The company’s revenue for 2024 amounted to UAH 91.37 million, which is twice as much as a year earlier, and its net profit was UAH 13.4 million, which is 1.7 times higher than in 2023. In the first quarter of 2025, the company’s revenue amounted to UAH 13.5 million, with a net profit of UAH 1.983 million.
Imports of goods to Ukraine in January-February 2026 amounted to $14.8 billion in monetary terms, while in the same period last year they amounted to $11.3 billion, which is 31% less, according to data from the press service of the State Customs Service of Ukraine (SCS).
According to a publication on the agency’s Telegram channel, in the first two months of 2026, goods worth $6.5 billion were exported from Ukraine, which is almost unchanged compared to the same period in 2025 ($6.3 billion).
“At the same time, taxable imports amounted to $5.2 billion, which is 78% of the total volume of imported goods. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports in January-February 2026 was $0.54/kg,” the report says.
The largest imports to Ukraine came from China ($4 billion), Poland ($1.4 billion), and Turkey ($1.1 billion).
The largest exports from Ukraine went to Poland ($713 million), Turkey ($563 million), and Italy ($428 million).
Of the total volume of goods imported in January-February 2026, 71% of the categories were machinery, equipment, and transport – $6 billion (with customs clearance, 32.9 billion UAH, or 26% of customs payments, was paid to the budget), fuel and energy products – $2.6 billion (49.7 billion hryvnia, or 39% of customs payments, paid to the budget), chemical industry products – $2 million (15.9 billion hryvnia, or 12% of revenues, paid).
The top three most exported goods from Ukraine were food products – $4 billion, metals and metal products – $589 million, and machinery, equipment, and transport – $532 million.
“In January-February 2026, during customs clearance of exports of goods subject to export duties, UAH 318.5 million was paid to the budget,” the State Customs Service summarized.
The Experts Club think tank has analyzed European countries’ responses to the fuel crisis. European countries’ responses to the 2026 fuel crisis have so far been mixed. Some governments are directly intervening in the fuel market by restricting exports, introducing price caps, and releasing reserves. Others are limiting themselves to price monitoring and coordination at the EU and G7 levels, trying not to provoke a shortage with even tougher measures.
Serbia has chosen the most aggressive form of intervention. The authorities have temporarily suspended exports of oil, gasoline, and diesel until March 19, explaining that this is to protect the domestic market from shortages and price spikes. Reuters notes that Serbia had already been controlling fuel prices since February 2022, meaning that the current decision is a continuation of a more interventionist regulatory model.
Hungary has opted for a mixed scenario. On the one hand, Budapest has introduced a price cap on gasoline and diesel for cars registered in Hungary. On the other hand, the government decided to use state reserves, and the Minister of Economy, according to Hungarian media reports, also announced a reduction in excise duties and a ban on the export of some petroleum products. This is a typical example of a combined anti-crisis scheme, where the authorities simultaneously try to keep retail prices down and maintain the physical availability of fuel on the market.
Croatia has chosen a softer approach—limiting maximum retail prices for a two-week period. The government has set a maximum price of EUR1.50 per liter for Eurosuper, EUR1.55 for diesel, and EUR0.89 for “blue diesel,” and has also limited prices for liquefied gas. Zagreb has stated outright that without this measure, diesel would cost EUR 1.72 per liter and gasoline EUR 1.55. This means that Croatia is trying not to isolate the market, but to soften the final effect on households and businesses.
Slovakia and, to some extent, the Czech Republic have focused not on retail regulation but on supporting physical supplies. After the failure of supplies via Druzhba, Slovakia approved the use of 250,000 tons of oil from strategic reserves for refining, while Hungary and Slovakia began negotiations on the use of reserves back in February. The Czech Republic, in turn, announced its readiness to send small volumes of oil to Slovakia via the eastern Druzhba pipeline.
The UK has not yet introduced price caps or export bans. Treasury Secretary Rachel Reeves said the government was monitoring the situation closely and warned retailers that it would not allow “excessive profits” amid the oil shock. This approach is closer to a supervisory model: the authorities are signaling to the market that they are ready to tighten control over the behavior of sellers, but are not moving to direct price administration.
At the pan-European level, caution prevails for now. The G7 and the EU are discussing possible measures, including the use of strategic reserves, tax changes, and carbon price adjustments, but no decision on coordinated release of reserves has been made yet. France, as chair of the G7, says that “all options are on the table,” but acknowledges that there is no immediate shortage in Europe.
The European Commission, for its part, points to the structural vulnerability of Europe, which imports more than 90% of its oil and about 80% of its gas.
The main conclusion for Europe now is that countries are responding differently depending on their own vulnerability. Balkan and Central European countries, which are dependent on imports and specific supply routes, tend to act faster and more aggressively — through bans, price caps, and reserves. The large economies of Western Europe are still favoring coordination, market pressure, and preparing tools in case the situation worsens. But if the oil shock drags on, the current targeted measures could turn into a broader wave of European intervention in the fuel market.
As part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative, Metinvest is working on exporting bunkers for the border between Poland and Russia, the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Alexander Mironenko said in an interview with Pryamyy TV channel.
“We are mainly working with our Western partners on shelters. This is very relevant right now: we are showing them our solutions for the construction of various structures. For example, a hospital that fully complies with NATO Role2 standards. It has been inspected by numerous delegations: military medics, engineers, and foreign specialists, and everyone agreed that the solutions are quite effective,” said Myronenko.
According to him, the company has presented its engineering solutions based on “hideouts” at many military-themed exhibitions and meetings, and they are very popular.
“We are currently working on entering the international market with these solutions, for example, for the construction of the border between Poland and Russia, using our experience and proposals for underground structures. The NATO army does not have such experience, so they are very interested in this. And we exchange information and experience with them,” said the COO.
He added that the shelters have undergone a major transformation. Initially, they were simply “barrels” buried in the ground. “Now we provide a full service — it is essentially an underground house with its own lighting, generator, stove, and all amenities: just plug the generator into the outlet, and the room is ready for use,” the COO clarified.
“The unique product we are proud of is, of course, the protective structures for the Patriot and SAMP/T air defense systems. And now we are developing protection for the Hawk air defense system control module, which operates in Ukraine. In my opinion, this is a unique experience, because we are talking about state-of-the-art technology designed to protect the sky from the enemy, but certain shortcomings have been revealed in real combat conditions. Together with the military, we corrected them – we made the control modules, radar installations, and other systems safer so that personnel could feel confident even in dangerous situations and conduct air defense of our cities and towns,” explained the top manager.
He added that the company plans to continue supporting the military in all areas, both through the purchase of equipment and through the provision of its own products.
“In production, we will focus on protecting equipment: we will improve existing solutions and develop new ones for different types of equipment. The second area is the development of ”shelters” and solutions based on them. An underground training center has already been built on the basis of such shelters, and we are now completing the construction of another large underground center for pilot training. This is a large niche in which we plan to continue working and developing,” Myronenko concluded.
According to the results of 2025, Ukraine provided domestic exporters of animal and plant products with access to 22 new foreign markets, said Serhiy Tkachuk, head of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, during a public report on Thursday.
According to him, this figure is a record for the period of full-scale war.
“Last year, we opened 22 new export markets. Currently, work is underway to open about 300 more. It does not stop there, because it is our priority to ensure that small, medium, and large Ukrainian businesses have the opportunity to export their products worldwide,” emphasized the head of the State Service.
According to the data presented, in 2025, the Chinese market opened up to Ukrainian peas, wild-caught seafood, and aquatic products. India and Canada allowed the import of Ukrainian apples. Canada also opened its market to table eggs.
“Each new certificate is the result of lengthy technical negotiations and audits. For example, opening up markets in countries such as Canada or China requires strict adherence to high safety standards,” added Tkachuk.
In addition, the Albanian market became accessible for table eggs, Argentina for sunflower seeds, and Kuwait for processed food products. Malaysia has opened access for milk, dairy, and egg products. Vietnam and Moldova have allowed the import of dairy products not intended for human consumption. The Chilean market has opened up for meat and bone meal and feather meal, and Turkey for canned animal feed.
Tkachuk noted that since 2022, Ukraine has managed to open a total of 75 new markets, despite logistical and political challenges.
“Even in the conditions of war, we continue to expand our geography. Currently, Ukraine has the right to export agricultural products to 386 trade destinations,” he specified.
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection is currently exploring opportunities to access markets in Asia, the EU, America, and the Middle East. In particular, work is underway to open the Canadian market for Ukrainian wheat, corn, soybeans, and rapeseed, as well as to expand the presence of plant products in China.
