The actions of the government are rapidly destroying the competitiveness of Ukrainian ferrous metallurgy

business combinations "Ukrmetallurgprom" concerned about the situation in the mining and metallurgical industry of Ukraine. According to forecasts of the Association, the year 2019 will be the worst year in the history of Ukraine in terms of production of ferrous metallurgy products. This is stated in the statement OP "Ukrmetallurgprom", published on Friday evening.

In the past several years, the Ukrainian steel industry shows a tendency to decrease in steel production. According to the Association, if in December 2016 was smelted 2 million 053 thousand tons of liquid steel, in December 2017 – already 1 million 897 thousand tons, in December 2018, 1 million 845 thousand tons, and in December 2019 will be produced no more than 1 million 200 thousand tons. The expected decline in production in December 2019 will account for 37% against production volume in December 2018 and a 42% reduction against the volume of production in December 2016, predicts "Ukrmetallurgprom".

"the Negative trend in the industry will only get stronger. This contributes to the worsening situation on the external markets and within the country. Revenues reduced due to lower prices on world steel markets, and cost increases due to the constant and often unjustified increase in the cost of services provided by public monopolies" - said in a statement.

Association gave examples of the growth of tariffs of state monopolies and regulators who are already higher than similar rates in Europe.

the Association said that most of the mining and metallurgical sector of Ukraine are on the verge of stopping, and some have already started to stop production of steel.

"Ukraine's mining ends in 2019 in a deep state of crisis that next year could be catastrophic to the economic stability and national security of Ukraine, in particular, this is expressed in the loss of jobs, the disappearance of sources of income the budgets of all levels, the loss of confidence of customers and market niches, which will immediately take foreign competitors, primarily the Russian metallurgists" – note the "Ukrmetallurgprom".