Exports of goods from Ukraine fell 7% in June 2024 year-on-year to its all-time low of $2.77 billion since the beginning of this year, Ukrainian media quoted the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) as saying on Tuesday.
According to IER’s foreign trade monitoring, exports of agricultural products dropped 2% to $1.60 billion, but exports of specific products developed differently with corn exports rising 12% (up 21% in physical terms), and with wheat and oil exports falling 32% and 5%, respectively.
Exports of metallurgy products slumped more than 9% in June year-on-year to $355 million. The IER said this probably resulted from higher energy costs and a change in the structure of exports: exports of pig iron and certain types of rolled products declined, while exports of semi-finished and other products rose.
At the same time, exports of mineral products, above all, iron ore, surged 33%, but were lower than in January-April 2024.
The IER said that owing to the resumption of exports from the Odessa ports, the volume of iron ore exports in tonnes increased 87% in June, though it was lower than in January-April 2024.
Exports of mineral products rose only 33%.
As for imports, they were almost unchanged in June compared to May, but went up 12% year-on-year to $5.63 billion.
As for specific sectors, imports of machinery and equipment rose in June 2024, up nearly 20% year-on-year (especially imports of drones, batteries, and generators), while imports of vehicles fell slightly in dollar terms due to lower import prices.
Imports of energy products soared 16% year-on-year due to higher imports of coke and coal likely to meet the needs of the metallurgical industry, where steelmaking was ramped up.
At the same time, imports of chemical products and food products dropped.
The growth of imports of “other goods” (primarily purchased for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces) had the greatest impact, as $752 million worth of goods under this category were imported into Ukraine ($400 million in the previous months of the year), it said.
The shortage of electricity resulted in the rise in its imports from $6 million in June 2023 to $78 million in June 2024, as well as batteries from $18 million a year earlier to $68 million in June 2024, the IER said.
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