Long-term factors and trends of the Ukrainian steel industry development

The paper deals with the study of long-term factors and trends of the Ukrainian steel industry development in the context of the influence of global industry trends. Its relevance is explained by the importance of the industry in the global and Ukrainian economy and the need to take into account modern economic, technological, social and climate challenges and opportunities for its future development. It was defined that leading factors of the world steel industry development in the long run are the demand for steel products, the implementation of latest technologies and the strengthening of a state industrial policy. Their influence will manifest in the increase of steel products consumption due to population growth, the priority implementation of smart technologies to improve the efficiency of steel manufacturing and strengthening of a state support for the industry, in particular – through protectionist measures. The main long-term trends of steel industry development on a global scale, due to the action of these factors, are the change in the geographical and product structure of the world steel market towards the leadership of the Asian region and the use of high-strength steels; increasing the environmental friendliness of the industry in order to achieve climate neutrality as a result of the implementation of breakthrough technologies; an increase of GDP steel intensity due to rise of steel production, which demonstrates a rather strong position of the steel industry in the economy. The study showed a slight decrease in the role of such traditional factors of the steel industry development as prices for steel products, investments and raw materials due to the increasing importance of means and directions for using resources instead of their ordinary availability. It was established that the main factors of the Ukrainian steel industry development in the long run, which are basically identical to the world ones due to its excessive export orientation, are changes in the global steel market, the development of latest technologies and the improvement in the competitive environment. And long-term trends are changes of steel products demand, increasing the environmental friendliness of the industry and reducing the GDP steel intensity. The influence of these factors and trends is largely negative and may lead to decrease of the role of steel industry in the economy due to the country's significant lag in terms of the introduction of latest technologies against the backdrop of increased competition in the foreign market, the lack of an effective industrial policy in the conditions of underdevelopment of the domestic steel market, a possible decrease in demand for steel products in the context of a declining population and a decrease in metal production. The improvement of the situation will contribute by the enhancement of the competitive environment through the elaboration of a long-term strategy for the industry development in the form of a separate regulatory act, the activation of the national market, the development of fundamental and industry science for the elaboration of advanced technologies of Industry 4.0 and the support of state authorities in promoting steel products to foreign markets.