Ukraine's imports of manganese ore and concentrate rose 88.6% on the year to 294,480 mt in January-March from 156,100 mt a year earlier, the state customs service reported Thursday.
The value of manganese ore imports soared to $42.7 million in the first quarter from $18.3 million in Q1 last year, the customs service said.
Over January-March, Ukraine received 50.3% of the total imports of the commodity from Ghana, 47.3% from South Africa, 1.6% from Gabon and 0.8% from other countries.
In March alone Ukraine imported 110,100 mt of manganese ore and concentrate, up from 47,400 mt in March 2016 but down from 128,700 mt in February, the customs service said.
Manganese ore is a raw material used for production of ferroalloy. Ukrainian ferroalloy plants use imported manganese ore concentrate to produce high quality ferroalloy with low phosphorus content.
In 2016, Ukraine's imports of manganese ore and concentrate dropped 24.6% year-on-year to 957,150 mt from 1.27 million mt imported in 2015.
