As reported by Open4Business, in January-September 2026 Ukraine increased imports of insulated wires and cables by 22.7% — to $540.7 million, while China for the first time significantly surpassed traditional European suppliers in this segment.
According to the State Customs Service, imports of Chinese cable products reached $157 million against $92.6 million in the same period last year.
Thus, in just one year, supplies from China increased by approximately 69.5%, and its share in Ukrainian imports of wires and cables approached 29%.
Hungary remains the second largest supplier. In the nine months, Ukraine imported $124 million of wires and cables from there, compared to $114 million a year earlier, corresponding to an increase of about 8.8%.
Poland took third place with supplies of $74 million compared to $74.7 million in January-September 2025.
Thus, China, Hungary and Poland together provided about $355 million, or almost two-thirds of all Ukrainian imports of cable products.
The main change in the market structure was the strengthening of China's position. A year ago, Hungary was the largest supplier, while now the value of Chinese imports exceeds Hungarian by approximately $33 million.
The rapid growth of imports may be related to the increased demand for electrical products, energy infrastructure restoration, telecommunications projects, construction, industrial equipment and automotive components.
At the same time, imports are growing much faster than exports. For nine months, the export of Ukrainian wires and cables remained approximately at the level of last year — $1.065 billion, while imports increased by almost a quarter.
According to the results of 2025, Ukraine imported wires and cables for $590.7 million, which was 24.3% higher than in 2024. Already in the first nine months of 2026, the volume of deliveries approached the level of the entire previous year.
