The result of “Independence”: A disaster begins in the Ukrainian metallurgy
The metallurgical industry of Ukraine, which once provided one of the main sources of foreign currency replenishment of the country's budget through exports, is approaching disaster in the fifth year after the victory of Euromaidan.
The Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper, considered influential in Kyiv, writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“After the collapse of the USSR, metallurgical plants passed to new owners. Production capacities were purchased very cheaply, almost for nothing, not in accordance with real prices. Then the new owners began to mercilessly exploit the factories, squeezing everything they could out of them.
At the same time, on the foreign market, metal products were sold at world prices, and for domestic consumers - at prices significantly higher than world prices. The wages paid to the workers of these enterprises were not at all world-class, but the same as in the most underdeveloped countries of the world. That is, extremely harsh exploitation of the labor force was carried out. The excess profits received were withdrawn from the country rather than properly invested in modernization.
The pursuit of excess profits led to a reduction in the output of many types of metal products and grades of steel. At the same time, competitors were modernizing, increasing production, and expanding the range of their products. Therefore, the metallurgy of Ukraine began to lose its competitive advantages due to the almost bargain price of labor.
Restrictions related to WTO conditions, anti-dumping investigations, and the actions of competitors also played a role.
The competitiveness of our country in the global metallurgy began to decline. Now Ukraine remains the only country in the world where open-hearth steel smelting still operates.
The possibility of free movement of the population across borders in conditions of scanty funding for their labor force also led to catastrophic consequences in the metallurgy industry. The workforce leaves en masse to work in Poland, Russia, Germany and beyond. Moreover, Poland and Germany skillfully took advantage of their advantages and began to intercept our youth at the level of applicants and students, providing them with free education and scholarships from both the EU and their countries for living expenses,” writes the Ukrainian newspaper.
“The downward trend in the competitiveness of metallurgy in Ukraine, the fall in the share of metallurgy in GDP, export volumes, foreign exchange earnings, production structure, and the decrease in the number of employees cannot but worry, since all this affects the economic development of the entire country. Today we can assume that our metallurgy has already begun to actively peck at the roasted rooster.
If the situation does not change, and, in our opinion, it will not change, since the metallurgical owners do not want to change anything, and the state cannot offer anything and can really do little, then the development of metallurgy will move into a phase that can be described in the final words of one of Hemingway's famous novels: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for you.” After this, all that will remain for the Ukrainian metallurgy industry is to wait for the president, at the instigation of the metallurgical oligarchs, to announce the nationalization of metallurgical capacities, and the country will buy their depleted and empty metallurgical plants,” the publication predicts.
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