In January-September 2026, Ukraine imported 34,270,000 tons of manganese ore worth $5,309 million, while during the same period in 2025, there was no import of this raw material, according to the statistics of the State Customs Service.
For nine months of the current year, the physical volume of imports has already reached 92.6% of the figure for the whole of 2025. Last year, Ukraine purchased 37,006 thousand tons of manganese ore abroad for $5.546 million, and all deliveries were made in November.
Import deliveries in 2026 significantly intensified in August-September. If Ukraine imported about 10.9 thousand tons of ore in seven months, then in eight months the import increased to 23.099 thousand tons, and in nine months - to 34.270 thousand tons.
Thus, in September alone, the country imported 11.171 thousand tons of manganese ore with an estimated value of $1.731 million. In August deliveries amounted to about 12,198 thousand tons, that is, in September they decreased by about 8.4%.
The main supplier of manganese ore to Ukraine in 2025 was Ghana. In January-July 2026, it also provided almost the entire volume of imports: 10,896 thousand tons worth $1,677 million. Another 5 tons worth $3 thousand were imported from China. The geography of supplies for the full nine months needs clarification according to detailed customs statistics.
At the same time, Ukraine is increasing its own export of manganese raw materials. In January-September 2026, 36,598,000 tons of ore worth $6,393 million were shipped abroad.
Thus, the physical volume of exports for nine months exceeded imports by only 2,328,000 tons, and the positive foreign trade balance of this commodity group was approximately $1,084 million.
Estimated average customs value imported manganese ore was about $155 per ton, exported - $175 per ton. At the same time, without information on the chemical composition and quality of raw materials, these indicators cannot be used for a direct comparison of market prices.
The increase in imports is taking place in the context of the resumption of work of a part of Ukrainian ferroalloy enterprises after the stoppage of production in 2023.
The Nikopol and Zaporizhzhya ferroalloy plants suspended the smelting of ferroalloys at the end of 2023 after the cessation of manganese ore mining at Pokrovsky and Marganetsk mining and beneficiation plants. In the summer of 2024, ferroalloy enterprises partially resumed production.
Manganese ore is the main raw material for the production of ferromanganese and silicomanganese, which are used in ferrous metallurgy for deoxidization and alloying of steel. At the same time, foreign trade statistics by themselves do not allow to determine what part of the imported ore was actually processed by Ukrainian enterprises.
