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Ukraine's rolled steel output, exports rise so far in 2024, union states

Ukrainian steel makers have increased rolled steel production by 20.6% so far in 2024 and improved exports by 53.5%, local steel manufacturers' union Ukrmetprom said.

The union said late on Monday that rolled steel output reached 5.3 million metric tons in January-October versus 4.4 million heaps a year earlier, while exports increased to 3.7 million tons from 2.4 million.

Ukraine is a major international steel maker and exporter but its production has fallen dramatically given that Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 as it lost several big steel plants in the east of the nation.

The potential loss of the only domestic source of coking coal needed for steel production could be an additional test for the Ukrainian steel industry, with Russian troops just a couple of kilometres far from the mine in Pokrovsk, which continues to operate.

The mine operates round the clock. The variety of employees at the website is 3,400, Oleksandr Kalenkov, head of Ukrmetprom, informed Reuters.

Kalenkov informed Reuters last month that the loss of the Pokrovsk mine could cause steel production to slump to 2-3 million lots a year from 7.5 million tons expected in 2024.

Metal exports were worth nearly $2 billion in the very first eight months of this year, according to trade data, cash needed to keep Ukraine going 2 and a half years into the war.

Steel and agricultural products typically control Ukrainian exports.

(source: Reuters)