Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises in January 2019 reduced steel production by 4.9% compared to the same period in 2018, to 1.850 million tonnes, moving from the 12th to 13th place in the ranking of 64 countries, the major global manufacturers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
A decrease in steel production in most of the top ten countries, except for China, the United States and Brazil was recorded in January.
The top ten producer countries in January are as follows: China (75.013 million tonnes, an increase of 4.3%), India (9.180 million tonnes, a fall of 1.9%), Japan (8.141 million tonnes, a drop of 9.8%), the United States (7.647 million tonnes, an increase of 11%), South Korea (6.211 million tonnes, a fall of 1.5%), the Russian Federation (5.790 million tonnes, a fall of 4.5%), Germany (3.410 million tonnes, a decrease of 7.2%), Brazil (2.933 million tonnes, an increase of 2.3%), Turkey (2.565 million tonnes, a drop of 19.5%), and Iran (2.230 million tonnes, a fall of 2.6%).
They are followed by Taiwan (2.010 million tonnes, an increase of 10.4%), Italy (1.959 million tonnes, a decrease of 3.6%), and Ukraine (1.850 million tonnes, a fall of 4.9%).
Private joint-stock company Weidmann Malyn paper factory (MPF, Zhytomyr region), the only producer of electrical insulating board for power engineering machines in Ukraine, increased production by 11.5% in January 2019 compared with January 2018, to UAH 58.24 million. Paper output in kind rose by 18.6%, to 542 tonnes, while cardboard production increased by 9%, to 424 tonnes.
MPF Weidmann is a member of the WICOR international group, the only company in Eastern Europe that can supply almost all kinds of electrical insulating paper and cardboard meeting regional and international standards.
In 2018, the factory increased production of commodity goods by 7.7%, to almost UAH 636.46 million.
Production of vehicles in Ukraine in January 2019 grew by 56.7% compared with January 2018, to 893 vehicles, and the growth pace is linked to the assembly of Skoda passenger cars by Eurocar Plant, which grew by 73%, to 828 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
Eurocar improved its production 4.2-fold compared with December 2018.
The association said that today Eurocar is the only enterprise in Ukraine where the production of passenger cars continues.
At the same time, the production of commercial vehicles fell by more than 63%: only five vehicles were manufactured in a month (excluding AvtoKrAZ, which has stopped disclosing production information since August 2016), including four by Cherkasy Bus (two in January 2018), and one by Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ, 30 vehicles)
The production of buses practically did not change: 60 buses were produced, against 59 vehicles a year earlier. The Cherkasy Bus (40 buses in January 2019 compared with 12 in January 2018) remained the leader of their production, the Chernihiv Automobile Plant (14 compared with 20 the previous year) was the second, the ZAZ and the Chasiv Yar Bus Plant made three buses each (compared with seven buses and 17 buses, respectively). Not a single bus was produced by Bogdan Corporation (three buses in January 2018).
Compared with December 2018, the output of buses in January decreased by 21%.
As reported, in 2018, the Ukrainian automakers produced only 6,616 vehicles. This was 23% less than a year earlier, and production capacity was loaded less than 1.5%.
At the same time, passenger car assembly decreased by 22%, to 5,660 cars (including Eurocar produced 5,659 cars, 7.9% less), commercial vehicles (excluding products of AvtoKrAZ) – by 73%, to 132 units. A slight positive trend was seen only in the production of buses – an increase of 2.5%, to 824 units.
Natural gas production in Ukraine in 2018 increased by 0.5% (by 106.3 million cubic meters) compared to 2017, to 20.898 billion cubic meters, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine. According to the ministry, the enterprises of Naftogaz Ukrainy increased gas production by 0.9% (by 152.9 million cubic meters), to 16.506 billion cubic meters during this period. In particular Ukrgazvydobuvannia increased gas production by 1.2% (by 176.2 million cubic meters), to 15.420 billion cubic meters, while Ukrnafta reduced it by 2.1% (by 23.3 million cubic meters), to 1.078 billion cubic meters. Chornomornaftogaz retained production at the level of the previous year at 8.7 million cubic meters.
Other oil and gas producing companies operating in the country in 2018 reduced gas production by 1% (by 46.5 million cubic meters) compared to 2017, to 4.391 billion cubic meters.
JKX Oil & Gas with assets in Ukraine and Russia in early 2019 reached the average daily production of 5,129 barrels (boepd), which is 27.8% more than the average figure for the fourth quarter of 2018, the company reported on the London Stock Exchange. According to the report, this result was achieved thanks to the successful testing of the IG103 wellbore, as a result of which the productivity of this well continues to exceed expectations and recently amounted to about 1,600 boepd, while the estimated production from it exceeds 30 million cubic meters.
In accordance with the presentation of JKX, last year it increased natural gas production by 4.6%, to 181 million cubic meters, oil extraction by 6.3%, to 34,000 tonnes.
The company said that in 2019 it intends to increase production in Ukraine thanks to new drilling and other measures, including research and 3D seismic exploration.
GAS, JKX, OIL, PRODUCTION
In 2018, Ukrainian coking plants increased the production of blast furnace coke with 6% moisture content by 4.1% compared to 2017—up to 10.826 million tonnes.
In December 2018, a total of 924,000 tonnes of coke was produced while in November the coke production stood at 917,000 tonnes, the Dnipro-based Ukrkoks association of coking plants told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Ukrkoks Director General Anatoliy Starovoit said coke chemical plants worked as normal, providing metallurgical enterprises with coke according to the existing production plans.
“In January, the production has decreased to some extent compared to December because of a smaller number of orders and due to some technical reasons. However, the manufacturing enterprises have been supplied with blast furnace coke in full, there are no problems,” he said.
When asked about the plans for the entire 2019, Starovoit said that there are two forecasting options for producing coke in the association: at the level of 2018 and with a 5% increase.
“We have not yet received plans from iron smelters, so we have planned two scenarios for the production of coke. In January, the contracting process is taking place; therefore, later there will be a clearer picture of our production plans,” the director general said.
As reported earlier, in 2017, 14,289 tonnes of enriched coke coal was supplied to coke-chemical enterprises, of which 3.458 million tonnes accounted for Ukrainian production and 10.831 million tonnes were imported. The ratio of imported and Ukrainian coal was 78.8% to 24.2%. In particular, the imports arrived from the Russian Federation—6.3 million tonnes, the United States and Canada—3.923 million tonnes, Kazakhstan—377,000 tonnes, and the Czech Republic—187,000 tonnes.
