In January-October 2025, Ukraine increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 14.8% to $432.08 million, while exports grew by 21.4% to $128.14 million.
In October, aluminum imports amounted to $42.85 million, and exports amounted to $15.71 million.
For comparison, in 2024, aluminum imports increased by 21.7% to $446 million, and in 2023, by 7.7% to $366 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum are its lightness, malleability, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and the non-toxicity of its compounds.
In particular, these properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the production of kitchenware, aluminum foil in the food industry, and for packaging. The first three properties have made aluminum the main raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently, it has been replaced by composite materials, primarily carbon fiber). After construction and packaging production—aluminum cans and foil—the largest consumer of metal is the energy industry.
Imports of electric batteries and separators to Ukraine in January-October 2025 increased by 53.4% year-on-year to $1.060 billion, according to the State Customs Service.
The largest suppliers were China with $740.6 million (70.2%), Vietnam with $96.2 million (9%), and Taiwan with $53.8 million (5%). In 2024, China (82%), Bulgaria (3.1%), and the Czech Republic (3%) were the leaders.
In October 2025, battery imports amounted to $144.9 million, which is 13.2% higher than in October 2024. Exports for ten months amounted to $43.9 million, with the main destinations being Poland (33%), Germany (12.9%), and France (11.9%). In 2024, exports amounted to $34.1 million, of which almost 30% went to Poland, 14.7% to France, and 11% to Germany.
Context. Since the end of July 2024, battery imports have been exempt from customs duties and VAT. By the end of 2024, imports of these products had more than doubled to $950.6 million.
Source: https://expertsclub.eu/ukrayina-zbilshyla-import-akumulyatoriv-na-53-za-desyat-misyacziv/
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/
