Ukraine’s commitments under Association Agreement: challenges and opportunities for the steel industry

The steel sector stands for a quarter of Ukraine’s industrial gross value added and is a backbone of the country’s economy. However, owing to lastingly insufficient investments to modernisation, the industry is largely obsolete: 70–80% of the production facilities are in operation beyond their final designed term of exploitation. Technology backwardness, coupled with excessive iron ore mining, results in an enormous environmental footprint. Owing to the domestic political and socioeconomic factors and severe competition on the global scale, the steel output hit its historic low in 2017. Recently, the EU became major Ukraine’s trade partner with steel export share of 32% in 2017. Modalities of this partnership will be gradually shaped in context of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (entered into force since 01.09.2017), which stipulates transposition into Ukrainian law of some European directives, potentially sensitive for the iron and steel sector. In this paper, the current state of Ukraine’s steel industry was analysed, focusing competitiveness and environmental impact. The analysis performed reveals that short-term implications of the Association Agreement may expose the Ukrainian steelmakers to additional costs; however, the need to comply with the EU regulations is seen as an important factor, motivating the steel industry to modernise and, in the long-term, improve its economic performance and reinforce competitiveness.