Ukraine’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate in the first four months of the year rose 6.6% year on year to 458,920 million mt, the state customs service said Thursday.
The value of imports of nickel ore and concentrate in the period rose to $22.2 million from $20.7 million in January-April 2017.
Ukraine received 60.8% of the total imports of the commodity in the period from Guatemala and 39.2% from Indonesia. Last year, Ukraine imported nickel ore and concentrate only from Guatemala, the customs service said.
In April Ukraine imported 149,500 mt of the commodity, up from 72,620 mt in April 2017 and up from 76,940 mt imported in March, it said.
Nickel ore is a raw material used to produce ferronickel (FeNi), which is used as an alloy addition in steel smelting.
In 2017, Ukraine’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate fell 4.2% to 1.314 million mt.
Ukraine’s only importer of nickel ore and producer of FeNi, Pobuzhskiy Ferronickel Plant, is capable of processing 1.6 million mt/year of wet ore to produce about 100,000 mt/year of FeNi. The company exports most of its output.
MANGANESE IMPORTS FALL 0.9%
Ukraine’s imports of manganese ore and concentrate in the first four months of the year fell 0.9% year on year to 358,130 mt, the state customs service said Thursday.
However, the value of manganese ore imports rose to $67 million in the period from $52.3 million a year ago, the customs service said.
Ukraine received 46.3% of the total imports of the commodity in the period from Ghana, 22.2% from Russia and 16.1% from Brazil. Last year, Ukraine imported manganese ore and concentrate from Ghana (50.5%), South Africa (42.5%) and Russia (5%).
In April alone Ukraine imported 26,800 mt of manganese ore and concentrate worth $6.4 million, down from 66,800 mt worth $9.6 million imported in April 2017, the customs service said.
Manganese ore is a raw material used to produce ferroalloy.
Ukrainian ferroalloy plants use imported manganese ore to produce high quality ferroalloy with low phosphorus content.
In 2017, Ukraine’s imports of manganese ore and concentrate rose 36.1% to 1.303 million mt.
