According to the data issued by the Ukrainian Association of Metal Traders, during the first ten months of 2007 Ukraine registered a considerable increase in its imports of flat steel products.
In the January-October 2007 period, Ukraine imported about 541,000 metric tons of flat steel - up 144 percent compared to the 222,000 metric tons imported in the corresponding period of 2006.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian domestic flat producers supplied about 2.5 million metric tons of flat products, showing only a seven percent year on year increase.
Commenting on the figures, the association stated that the continuously growing flat import volumes may threaten the well-being of the Ukrainian domestic flats producers in the near future. According to association's data for the first ten months of 2007, the share of flat imports in the Ukrainian domestic market was 18 percent, compared to nine percent registered for the whole of 2006.
During the period in question, Russian steelmaker MMK and Kazakh producer Mittal Steel Temirtau showed the largest year on year increases in terms of imports to Ukraine from overseas mills - i.e. 304 percent and 543 percent respectively.