Ukraine raised iron ore exports 4.6% year-on-year in Q1, 2013 to 8.973 million tonnes, the State Customs service has told Interfax-Ukraine.

The exports fell 2.3% in value to $783.743 million.

Most iron ore was exported to China (48.18%), the Czech Republic (11.64%) and Poland (10.48%).

Iron ore imports rose 22.6% to 707,959 tonnes and 0.8% to $57.084 million and originated mostly in Russia (99.86%).

Pig iron exports grew 39.3% year-on-year in Q1 to 490,443 tonnes and 19.4% to $172.525 million. Most pig iron was exported to Italy (40.72%), Turkey (37.07%) and the United States (10.22%). Pig iron imports fell 52% to 3,824 tonnes and 60% to $1.694 million. All the pig iron imports came from Russia.

Ferroalloy exports by Ukraine fell 29% year-on-year in Q1 to 149,769 tonnes and 19.3% to $197.075 million and went mostly to Germany (21.88%), the Netherlands (15.24%) and Russia (15.12%). Ferroalloy imports fell 22.8% to 34,149 tonnes (39.6% to $67.226 million), most of them from Russia (22.22%), India (12.99%) and South Korea (10.81%)

Manganese ore and concentrate exports fell 48.1% to 5,344 tonnes (74.6% to $240,000), and went mostly to the Czech Republic (70.22%) and Slovakia (29.78%). Manganese imports rose 140% to 192,275 tonnes (fell 34.7% to $32.473 million), mostly from Ghana (50.79%), Australia (19.39%) and Gabon (16.81%).