In September, the Ukrainian steel industry increased its natural gas consumption by 20 million cubic meters month on month to 404 million cubic meters, with the average daily consumption of natural gas during the month totaling 13.5 million cubic meters - up from 12.4 million cubic meters in September 2009.
According to the Ukrainian association of metal producers Metallurgprom, in January-September this year, the domestic steel industry's average daily consumption of natural gas amounted to 13.8 million cubic meters, with the increase in gas consumption being caused by the irregular operation of blast furnaces.
In addition, during the first nine months of the current year, Ukraine's steel industry also increased its power consumption by 18 percent year on year to about 28.52 billion kWh.