Ukrainian steel companies in 2016 could increase steel smelting by 15% compared to 2015, to 26.5 million tonnes if the ongoing production pace is kept.

"We see growth by some 15% in the first two months of the year and 22 days of March. If the trend retains, we will produce 26.5 million tonnes of steel this year," Head of Ukraine's Federation of Metallurgists Serhiy Bilenky said at a roundtable held in the profile parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Representatives of metal companies said that a shortage of scrap metal could entail the decrease in steel smelting. They urged the government, particularly, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, to use a statesmanlike approach to the provision of Ukrainian metal producers with scrap metal and not to stimulate its exports.

The Metallurgprom association (Dnipropetrovsk) told Interfax-Ukraine that a stable trend of boosting steel production has been seen in the past months.

"Daily production in January was more than in December. In February it was more than in January and in March smelting increased more," Metallurgprom said.