Economy

This Is Ukraine's Top Trading Partner

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 8, 2022 8:30 am

Last Updated: April 8, 2022 9:08 am

As the invasion of Ukraine by Russia moves well into its second month, one huge challenge to Ukraine’s gross domestic product and the prosperity of its economy is an inability to get key exports out of the country. One recent estimate is that grain shipments could be cut by $6 billion. Several nations, including Egypt and Turkey, rely heavily on this grain. The grain export problem has had another effect that is worldwide. The lack of supply has pressured prices upward.

Grain is not the only large export. Parts of the world rely on Ukrainian iron ore. The country also faces severe problems with imports, which are led by oil and cars.

The most common destinations for Ukraine’s exports are China, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Egypt. But Ukraine also imports goods, and countries exporting to Ukraine could be affected too. The most common import partners of Ukraine are China, Russia, Poland, Germany and Belarus.

To determine Ukraine’s leading trading partner, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on export and import value reported to the Trade Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division and curated by the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), an online data visualization and distribution platform. Countries were ranked based on the total value of all imports to and exports from Ukraine in 2020.

China was by far Ukraine’s leading trading partner, with a total trade value in 2020 of $14.71 billion. Ukraine’s top export to China was iron ore. Ukraine’s second-largest trading partner was Russia in 2020, though no doubt that relationship has changed dramatically since the war began. At the time, the total trade value was $9.28 billion, with Ukraine importing $6.31 billion worth of goods. Its largest import product from Russia was refined petroleum.

The United States was Ukraine’s ninth-largest trading partner in 2020, with Ukraine importing $2.16 billion worth of goods from there and exporting $1.11 billion worth to the United States. The top export to the United States was pig iron, which is used in the production of steel. According to the OEC, the United States imported a total of $1.24 billion worth of pig iron in 2020, meaning that the pig iron imports from Ukraine, worth $540 million, accounted for about 44% of the U.S. total pig iron imports.