KIEV, March 2 - Ukraine, the world??™s seventh largest producer of steel, will probably increase steel output by 2.9% on the year to 42 million metric tons in 2007, a senior government official said Friday.

Volodymyr Novytskiy, deputy industrial policy minister, said that Ukraine??™s output of rolled steel will probably increase by about 1.1% on the year to 37 million metric tons.