In January-November this year, Ukraine increased imports of aluminum ore and concentrate (bauxite) in physical terms by 82.3% compared to the same period last year, up to 30,140 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Monday, bauxite imports in monetary terms increased by 78.2% to $3.672 million during this period.
The imports came mainly from Turkey (76.74% of supplies in monetary terms), China (21.06%) and Spain (2.12%).
Ukraine did not re-export bauxite in the period under review, as well as in January-November 2023.
As reported, in 2022, Ukraine reduced imports of aluminum ore and concentrate (bauxite) in physical terms by 81.5% compared to the previous year – to 945.396 thousand tons. Imports of bauxite in monetary terms decreased by 79.6% to $48.166 million. Imports were mainly from Guinea (58.90% of supplies in monetary terms), Brazil (27.19%) and Ghana (7.48%).
In 2023, Ukraine imported 19,830 thousand tons of bauxite worth $2.360 million.
Bauxite is an aluminum ore used as a raw material to produce alumina, which is used to make aluminum. They are also used as fluxes in ferrous metallurgy.
Mykolaiv Alumina Plant (MAP) imports bauxite to Ukraine.
Imports of refrigerators, freezers and heat pumps to Ukraine in January-November this year increased by 21.3% in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2023, to $251.59 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service.
According to the agency’s statistics, refrigeration and freezing equipment was imported mainly from China (32.3% of imports, or $81.3 million), Poland (23.7%, or $59.7 million) and Turkey (12.3%, or $30.8 million), while a year earlier, most of such equipment was imported from Poland (28%), followed by China (21%) and Turkey (15.2%).
At the same time, in November, imports of refrigeration and freezing equipment decreased by 5% to $17.3 million compared to November 2023.
Meanwhile, in January-November, Ukraine increased exports of such equipment by 56.7% to $68.05 million, in particular, exports to Poland increased 6.6 times to $13.52 million (almost 20% of exports of this equipment), to Kazakhstan – by 21.2% to $13.37 (19.7%), to Uzbekistan more than tripled to $7.53 million (11%).
For a long time, Ukraine’s largest producer of household refrigerators and freezers was the Nord plant in Donetsk, which was forced to shut down in 2016 due to the war and moved its refrigerator production to China.
On the distribution company’s website, the last message about the sale of equipment in the online store is dated June 2020.
In addition, KTD Group, which produces household appliances in Ukraine under the Saturn, ST, and Laretti brands, announced in February 2019 that it would launch a trial production of household refrigerators at a new plant in Cherkasy, but nothing has been known about this project since then.
In addition, the UBC Group, a commercial and industrial holding company with plants in Kharkiv and Vinnytsia, operates in the B2B refrigeration segment in Ukraine.
In January-November this year, Ukraine increased imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 2.05 times compared to the same period last year, up to 622.694 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Monday, coke imports in monetary terms increased by 87% to $222.891 million over the period.
Imports were mainly from Poland (84.90% of supplies in monetary terms), Colombia (8.18%) and Hungary (2.85%).
For 11 months of the year, the country exported 1.593 thousand tons of coke for $366 thousand to Moldova (99.73%) and Latvia (0.27%), while in January, March, October and November 2024 there were no exports, while for 11 months of 2023 exports amounted to 3.383 thousand tons for $787 thousand.
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine reduced imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 8.5% compared to 2022 – to 328.697 thousand tons, while imports in monetary terms decreased by 25.8% to $129.472 million.
In 2023, Ukraine exported 3,383 thousand tons of coke, down 12.3% compared to 2022. In monetary terms, it decreased by 22.2% to $787 thousand.
Exports were carried out to Moldova (100% of supplies in monetary terms), while imports came mainly from Poland (88.47%), Colombia (7.72%) and the Czech Republic (3.15%).
Imports of trucks to Ukraine in January-November 2024 increased by 28.8% in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2023, to EUR834.6 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service.
According to the data released on Monday, most of the trucks were imported from Poland – for EUR169.25 million (or 20.28% of the total import structure of such vehicles), which is 89% more than a year earlier.
Cars worth EUR103.82 million (12.4%) were imported from France, which is 25% more than in January-November 2023, and EUR90.18 million from the United States. A year earlier, the top three truck exporting countries were Poland (13.8% of total truck imports), Korea (13.5%) and France (12.8%).
Imports from other countries increased by 21.5% to EUR 471.3 million during this period.
At the same time, according to statistics, in November, Ukraine imported trucks worth EUR75.8 million, compared to EUR59.4 million in the same month last year.
Over 11 months, Ukraine exported trucks worth EUR 2.9 million, mainly to Moldova (37.4% of exports of such vehicles), Poland (15.18%) and Kazakhstan (12.6%), while a year earlier, their exports amounted to EUR 3.87 million, mainly to Armenia (32.3%), Romania (25.7%) and Turkey (16.4%).
In November 2024, Turkey overtook Spain, the unchallenged leader, in imports of Ukrainian corn, Dmytro Solomchuk, MP, member of the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy, said on Facebook.
“In terms of physical weight, the figures are significant – 2.5 million tons of exports in November, of which 620 thousand tons were bought by Turkey,” he wrote.
The MP noted that in November, a total of $2.3 billion worth of agricultural products were exported, of which only $512 million was corn.
As reported, on October 10, 2024, Turkey introduced quotas on imports of 1 million tons of corn and reduced the duty to 5% by the end of December 2024.
In November 2024, Ukraine remained a net importer of electricity, but its total imports decreased by 9% compared to October – to 165 million kWh, D.Trading LLC reported.
According to its analytical report provided to the Energoreforma portal, most of the electricity was imported to Ukraine from Slovakia (55.5 million kWh). Poland ranks second (41.4 million kWh), Hungary third (33.3 million kWh), followed by Romania (28.6 million kWh) and Moldova (6.1 million kWh).
The largest volume of electricity imports per day was on November 1 – 12 million kWh, or more than 4% of total electricity consumption in Ukraine.
According to the company, in November, as in October, imports did not reach the maximum technically permitted capacity of 1700 MW, reaching only 1300 MW in the evening peak.
“In general, the utilization of the offered cross-section fell to 42% (in October it was 72%). But at the same time, the volume of the offered crossing was 54% higher than in October – 390.7 million kWh. The interconnection with Hungary was used by 24%, with Poland – by 87%, with Romania – by 31%, with Slovakia – by 64%, with Moldova – by 27%,” the report says.
According to the company’s estimates, last month, imports, taking into account all costs, were economically feasible in only 20% of hours from Hungary (145 hours), Romania (142 hours) and Slovakia (136 hours). From Poland, imports were reasonable in 35% of all hours (254 hours).
“D.Trading notes that the main factors behind the dynamics of electricity imports during the month were deteriorating weather conditions, which led to an increase in consumption; high spot prices in neighboring EU countries caused by increased demand; shelling of energy infrastructure, which led to the renewal of restrictions; business demand for imported electricity after the restrictions were lifted.
According to the company’s analysts, in the first decade of November, imports fell from the initial level of more than 10 million kWh per day to 1-3 million kWh/day. They attribute this to a significant increase in prices on the spot markets of European countries due to the almost complete absence of renewable energy production and the growth of consumption to an excessive level.
According to D.Trading, in Hungary alone, consumption at the beginning of the month was more than 10% higher than normal for this period of time, and scheduled repairs at the Kozloduy NPP unit (Bulgaria) further worsened the situation with the balance of Southeast European countries.
At the same time, the high load on power lines due to increased consumption also led to restrictions on interstate electricity transfers.
At the same time, prices on the Ukrainian day-ahead market (DAM) were significantly lower than European prices due to price restrictions.
Analysts point out that imports continued to remain at a very low level until November 17, when massive shelling of the energy infrastructure took place.
“The restrictions imposed on industrial consumers after that increased business demand for imported electricity. Due to the extremely high prices in Europe, businesses did not use the import quota at the maximum possible level, so import growth in the last decade of November was only up to about 10 million kWh per day,” D.Trading describes the situation.
As reported, electricity imports in October decreased by 58% compared to September and became the lowest figure since March 2024.
The full report will soon be posted on the Energoreforma website https://reform.energy/.
