In January-October 2024, Ukraine increased imports of nickel and products by 77.8% compared to the same period in 2023 to $22.109 million (in October – $2.891 million).
In addition, in 2023, Ukraine decreased imports of nickel and products by 74.2% compared to 2022, to $15.391 million.
Exports of nickel and products for ten months of 2024 amounted to $572 thousand (in October – $64 thousand), while in January-October 2023 it was $257 thousand.
In 2023, exports of nickel and nickel products amounted to $532 thousand, while in 2022 they amounted to $1.268 million.
Nickel is used to make stainless steel and for nickel plating. Nickel is also used in the production of batteries, in powder metallurgy, and in chemicals.
Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of tin and tin products by 15.9% to $2.647 million in January-October this year ($561 thousand in October).
Exports of tin and tin products amounted to $349 thousand (in October – $3 thousand) against $57 thousand in the same period a year earlier. At the same time, imports of tin and tin products decreased by 23% to $2.728 million.
Exports of tin and tin products amounted to $159 thousand against $424 thousand in 2022.
Tin is used mainly 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 food containers, in solders for electronics, in house pipelines, in bearing alloys, and in coatings made of tin and its alloys. The most important tin alloy is bronze (with copper).
In January-October this year, Ukrainian companies increased imports of copper and copper products in value terms by 11.7% compared to the same period last year, to $116.252 million.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, exports of copper and copper products increased by 19.4% to $72.981 million over the period under review.
In October, the country imported copper worth $11.742 million and exported it for $7.466 million.
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine increased imports of copper and copper products by 2.2 times compared to 2022 – up to $140.795 million, while exports decreased by 20.1% to $72.078 million.
Copper is widely used in electrical engineering, pipe manufacturing, alloys, medicine and other industries.
In January-October this year, Ukrainian companies increased imports of zinc and zinc products by 31.9% to $49.493 million (in October – $5.939 million).
Zinc exports for the first ten months of this year amounted to $419 thousand (in October – $142 thousand), while in January-October 2023 it amounted to $99 thousand.
At the same time, imports of zinc and zinc products increased by 18.8% to $45.966 million.
In 2023, zinc was exported by $130 thousand against $1.331 million in 2022.
Pure zinc metal is used to restore precious metals, protect steel from corrosion and for other purposes.
In January-October 2024, Ukraine increased exports by 16.1% to $34.6 billion, while imports increased by 9.9% to $57.4 billion, the State Customs Service reports.
“At the same time, taxable imports amounted to $47.4 billion, which is 83% of the total volume of imported goods. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports in January-October 2024 amounted to $0.51/kg, which is 5% more than in the same period in 2023,” the State Customs Service website said on Friday.
Among the countries from which Ukraine imported the most goods: China ($11.6 billion), Poland ($5.6 billion), and Germany ($4.4 billion).
Ukraine exported the most to Poland – by $4 billion, Germany – by $2.4 billion, and Spain – by $2.4 billion.
It is noted that in total, 65% of imported goods in January-October 2024 were machinery, in particular, equipment and transport – $20.3 billion (during customs clearance, UAH 141 billion was paid to the budget, or 30% of customs revenues), chemical products – $9.3 billion (UAH 72.3 billion was paid to the budget, or 15% of revenues), fuel and energy – $8.7 billion (UAH 127.1 billion was paid, or 27% of customs revenues).
The top three most exported goods from Ukraine are food products – $20.3 billion, metals and metal products – $3.8 billion, and machinery, equipment and transport – $2.9 billion.
It is noted that in January-October 2024, UAH 251.7 million was paid to the budget during customs clearance of exports of goods subject to export duties.
NPC Ukrenergo and Polish system operator PSE are considering increasing electricity imports to Ukraine by an additional 150 MW, which could bring the total to 2.5 GW of electricity imports from Europe, acting CEO of Ukrenergo Oleksiy Brekht said at the 10th Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) on Thursday.
”2,100 MW is the basic value that we have and can maintain. Further, we have the so-called guaranteed emergency assistance, which is another 250 MW. And today we are working with the Polish system operator on another initiative that could provide an additional 150 MW of imports,” he said.
According to Brecht, the total capacity of European imports will thus reach 2.5 GW. “In total, this is 2500 MW, almost 2.5 nuclear power units, which will help us significantly this winter,” the head of the company emphasized.
As he informed, Ukraine, together with its European partners, expects to achieve stable supply of the achieved import volumes also after the autumn-winter period of 2024-25.
“We expect that in the spring we will have a dynamic opportunity to revise the establishment of certain throughput capacities (interstate crossings of power lines) and expect that it will not be lower than the existing value,” Brecht said.
As reported, Ukraine and the EU have agreed to increase the maximum capacity of electricity imports from the EU countries from December 1, 2024, from the current 1.7 to 2.1 GW.
Ukraine will also have an additional 250 MW of guaranteed capacity for emergency flows from the EU.
In turn, starting from March 2025, European transmission system operators will be able to review the capacity limit for commercial electricity exchange between the EU, Ukraine and Moldova on a monthly basis.
