KYIV, Jan 11 – Ukraine in 2018 increased exports of metal products by 1.8% compared with 2017 - to 18.548 million tons, mainly due to increased sales of pig iron in foreign markets, state-run enterprise National Research and Information Center for Monitoring International Commodity Markets (Derzhzovnishinform) said on Friday.

Pig iron is a staple with lower added value compared to finished products or semi-finished products.

In 2018, pig iron exports increased by 28.4%, to 3.007 million tons, and export earnings amounted to $1.053 billion, which is 42.6% more than in 2017.