In June this year, Ukraine increased its exports of manganese ore by 36.6 per cent compared with the previous month – from 1,720 thousand tonnes to 2,350 thousand tonnes.
According to statistics published by the State Customs Service (SCS), a total of 21,946 thousand tonnes of manganese ore were exported, whereas in the same period last year exports stood at 2,218 thousand tonnes, worth $366 thousand.
However, in May this year, Ukraine reduced its manganese ore exports by a factor of 3.1 compared with April – to 1,720 thousand tonnes from 5,319 thousand tonnes; in April, it increased exports by a factor of 2.8 compared with March – to 5,319 thousand tonnes from 1,932 thousand tonnes; in March, exports fell by a factor of 3.1 compared with the previous month – to 1,932 thousand tonnes from 6,072 thousand tonnes, and by a factor of 2.4 compared with January, when 4,553 thousand tonnes were exported.
In monetary terms, exports of this raw material for January–June totalled $3,729 million (for the first six months of 2025 – $366 thousand). Exports were made to Slovakia (74.83 per cent of shipments in monetary terms) and Georgia (25.17 per cent).
In January–June of this year, Ukraine imported 5 tonnes of manganese ore from China worth $3,000, whereas there were no imports last year.
As reported, in 2025 Ukraine reduced its manganese ore exports by 50.4 per cent compared with the same period last year – to 22,281 thousand tonnes – but stepped up shipments between August and December. Whilst exports for the first seven months of 2025 stood at 2,977 thousand tonnes, they more than doubled in August, when 5,037 thousand tonnes were exported; in September, they totalled 1,725 thousand tonnes; in October – 3,993 thousand tonnes; in November – 3,860 thousand tonnes; and in December – 4,689 thousand tonnes.
In monetary terms, exports for the whole of 2025 fell by 45.2 per cent compared with 2024 – to $3,599 million. The main export destinations were Slovakia (99.22 per cent of shipments in monetary terms) and Poland (0.78 per cent). Over the year, the country imported 37,006 thousand tonnes from Ghana, worth $5.546 million. All shipments took place in November. In 2024, 84,293 thousand tonnes of ore worth $18.302 million were imported.
The Pokrovsk Mining and Processing Plant (PGOK, formerly the Ordzhonikidze Mining and Processing Plant) and the Marganets Mining and Processing Plant (MGOK, both in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), which are part of the Privat Group, ceased the extraction and processing of raw manganese ore in late October–early November 2023, whilst NVF and ZZF halted the smelting of ferroalloys. In the summer of 2024, the ferroalloy plants resumed production.
PGOK and MGOK did not produce any output in 2024, whereas in 2023, PGOK produced 160.31 thousand tonnes of manganese concentrate, whilst MGOK was idle.
In 2025, PGOK produced 63.9 thousand tonnes of manganese concentrate worth 342.138 million UAH and sold 25.4 thousand tonnes worth 216.309 million UAH. In 2026, the plant plans to increase its production of manganese concentrate by a factor of 3.44 compared with the previous year – to 220,000 tonnes.
In Ukraine, manganese ore is mined and processed by the Pokrovsk and Marganets mining and processing plants.
The consumers of manganese ore are ferroalloy plants.