KIEV, Dec. 20 – The EU countries' share of exports of Ukrainian metal products is 28%, while the share of the CIS states is 16%, 70% of this going to the Russian market, Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza director Volodymyr Vlasiuk, said on Wednesday.

"The EU sales market is more important for us that the Russian market," he said adding that there is a need to diversify the sales market via other countries.

He said that it is expected that in 2012, Ukraine will export 22.6 million tons of rolled steel, while in the pre-crisis period rolled steel exports stood at 28.4 million tons. Supplies to the EU market this year will reach 4.7 million tons of rolled steel compared to 6.6 million tons in 2011 and deliveries to the Asian markets will come to 2.3 million tons compared to 3.2 million tons in 2011.