In the first ten months of 2025, imports of nickel and nickel products fell by 4.8% to $21.05 million, while in October, nickel imports amounted to $3.81 million, according to data from the State Customs Service.
At the same time, exports almost doubled to $1.13 million, compared to $0.57 million in 2024.
In 2024, nickel imports, on the contrary, rose sharply by 73.7% to $26.73 million after falling by 74% in 2023.
Nickel is used in the production of stainless steel and for nickel plating. Nickel is also used in the production of batteries, in powder metallurgy, and in chemical reagents.
In January-October 2025, Ukraine increased imports of copper and copper products by 27.4% compared to the same period last year, to $148.05 million.
Copper exports during this period increased by 15.1%, reaching $84.02 million, according to the State Customs Service.
In October, imports amounted to $14.46 million, while exports amounted to $12.91 million.
For comparison: in 2024, copper imports remained almost unchanged at $140.8 million, while exports increased by 22.4% to $88.24 million.
Copper is widely used in electrical engineering, in the production of pipes, in the creation of alloys, in medicine, and in other industries.
In October 2025, Ukraine imported 353.9 thousand MWh of electricity, which is 2.5 times more than in September, according to the DIXI Group analytical center, citing data from Energy Map.
“This is the highest monthly import figure since the beginning of the year. At the same time, exports fell sevenfold to 90.8 thousand MWh, which was the first decline in the last five months,” the center reported.
According to DIXI Group, the sharp increase in imports is due to the deterioration of the situation in the energy system caused by massive shelling of energy infrastructure. In particular, during October, Russian attacks damaged, among other things, thermal and hydroelectric power facilities, which led to a power shortage. As a result, emergency and scheduled hourly power cuts for the population were resumed, as well as restrictions on consumption for industry and business.
The situation was exacerbated by a drop in temperature. Low output from residential solar power plants due to cloudy weather, as well as the active use of electric heaters before the start of the heating season, placed an additional burden on the power system.
Electricity imports in October were wave-like in nature, due to enemy shelling. In particular, after a massive strike on October 10, external supplies rose sharply – on October 11, imports reached 19.0 thousand MWh, which is 141.5% more than the previous day.
A similar situation repeated itself after the attack on October 22: on October 23-24, there was a sharp increase in imports to 19.8 thousand MWh and 23.4 thousand MWh, respectively, or +64.8% and +94.4% compared to October 22. At the end of the month, after another large-scale attack on October 30, Ukraine was again forced to increase external purchases: on October 31, imports amounted to 22.4 thousand MWh (+76.9% compared to the previous day).
In the structure of imports by direction of electricity supply, Hungary accounts for more than 50% – 180.0 thousand MWh (50.9%). This is followed by Poland with 80.2 thousand MWh (22.7%) and Romania with 76.9 thousand MWh (21.7%).
The maximum agreed commercial capacity for imports from the EU from December 2024 is 2.1 GW. On average, in October 2025, capacity utilization was 22.6%, with a maximum on October 18 between 20:00 and 21:00 (84.4%) and the only hour of the month when no electricity was imported (October 3 between 22:00 and 23:00). At the same time, during peak morning and evening consumption hours, capacity utilization increases significantly.
In addition to the commercial capacity of 2.1 GW for Ukraine, an additional 0.25 GW of emergency assistance is available from neighboring ENTSO-E operators as “insurance” at critical moments. Thus, emergency assistance was provided during October from Poland, both in the form of additional electricity with a total volume of 28.8 thousand MWh and in the form of supplies of surplus electricity to Poland (5.25 thousand MWh). There is no public information available on other neighbouring power systems.
In turn, the main volumes of electricity exports in October were carried out during hours of minimum domestic consumption – mainly at night and early in the morning – from 0:00 to 6:00.
In terms of export structure by destination, Hungary prevails with 39.3 thousand MWh (43.2%), Moldova with 31.1 thousand MWh (34.3%), and Romania with 14.9 thousand MWh (16.4%).
“As a result, imports in October exceeded exports by almost four times – the negative balance in October amounted to 263.0 thousand MWh,” DIXI Group concluded.
Overall, based on the results of the first 10 months of 2025, Ukraine is a net importer of electricity, with a negative balance of 168.7 thousand MWh for this period.
Imports of goods to Ukraine in January-October 2025 reached $67.8 billion, which is 18.1% more than a year earlier, according to the State Customs Service. The largest countries of origin for imports were China with $15.1 billion,
Poland with $6.4 billion, and Germany with $5.4 billion.
Taxable imports amounted to $51.8 billion, or 76% of the total volume. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports was $0.52/kg.
In terms of commodity structure, 68% was accounted for by machinery, equipment, and transport—$27 billion (customs payments—168 billion UAH, 29%); chemical industry products—$10.4 billion (81.1 billion UAH, 14%); fuel and energy products – $8.5 billion (UAH 167.9 billion, 29%).
Source: https://expertsclub.eu/import-v-ukrayinu-zris-na-18-lidyruyut-kytaj-polshha-nimechchyna/
Imports of transformers, inductors, and chokes to Ukraine in January-September 2025 increased 2.1 times compared to the same period in 2024, reaching almost $777 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service.
According to the published data, China remains the largest supplier of these products to Ukraine. During this period, $649.5 million worth of these products were imported from China (83.6% of all imports of these goods), while a year ago, $239.5 million worth of transformers and chokes were imported from this country (64.1%).
In addition, transformers were imported from Germany ($40.4 million) and Turkey ($17.9 million), while in January-September 2024, imports from Turkey amounted to $46.1 million, and from Germany – $9.9 million.
In particular, in September, supplies of this equipment to Ukraine increased by 42.6% compared to September 2024, to $95.9 million.
Since the beginning of this year, as reported, the volume of transformer imports has significantly exceeded last year’s figures—in particular, in January, their imports increased sixfold, but the growth rate gradually slowed down and, at the end of the first half of the year, was already 2.6 times higher than in January-June 2024.
According to the State Customs Service, Ukraine exported transformers, inductors, and chokes worth $23.8 million in the first nine months of this year, compared to $24.8 million in the same period last year, mainly to Germany, Hungary, and Poland.
As reported with reference to the State Customs Service, imports of transformers, inductors, and chokes to Ukraine in 2024 more than doubled compared to 2023, reaching $596.11 million, with imports from China increasing 2.5 times to $400.48 million.
In January-September 2025, Ukraine increased its imports of petroleum products by 3% (166,823 thousand tons) compared to the same period last year, to 5 million 665,761 thousand tons.
According to the State Customs Service, petroleum products were imported in the amount of $4 billion 566.46 million, which is 11.1% less than in the first nine months of 2024 ($5 billion 133.869 million).
Fuel worth $695.185 million was imported from Poland (15.22% share), Greece – $595.812 million (13.05%), Lithuania – $569.152 million (12.46%), other countries – $2 billion 706.311 million (59.26%).
As reported, Ukraine imported 7 million 562.556 thousand tons of petroleum products in 2024, which is 1.1% less than in 2023 (7 million 646.537 thousand tons).
