07 April 2016, 15:11
During his official visit to Mariupol, Viktor Halasiuk took part in the meeting with the Mariupol city head, talked to local public activists and visited Mariupol-based Ilyich integrated iron and steel works.
Having studied the production facilities at the enterprise, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship discussed the problems of the mining and metals sector with the leadership and employees of the company.
This enterprise as well as other Ukrainian metal works suffers short of raw materials for the production. According to director general of the Ilyich integrated iron and steel works Yurii Zinchenko, the warehouses of the enterprise currently have only 2,000-3,000 tons of scrap metal. "This is the balance we have today at the enterprise. That means one or two days of operation. In good times we had 60,000-70,000 tons of scrap metal in the stock. We could easily increase the production," he said having supported the draft law No. 3868, which "would allow to constrain the exportation of scrap metal and direct it to Ukrainian metal producers."
In turn, Viktor Halasiuk promised to assist in solving current metallurgists' problems. "During the forthcoming month, we plan to adopt that package of draft laws. On the one hand these draft laws will help raise the export duty from EUR 10 to EUR 35, and on the other hand it will eliminate import duties for scrap metal from 5% to 0%. This is European-style policy on development of the industry," the parliamentarian said.
He also noted that the adoption of the draft law No. 3868 will allow providing Ukrainian enterprises with raw materials, which in turn will save them from idling. "This means the protection of Ukrainian jobs, volumes of production and exportation. If we lose a part of the Ukrainian metallurgy, mining and metals sector and sectors related to it, we will lose jobs, export income and hryvnia stability — respectively the prices in the stores will grow," the Chairperson of the Committee said.