Regional structure of mechanical engineering in Ukraine: current trends of change

Abstract

The main development tendencies of machine-building production in the regions of Ukraine are examined. The paper reveals that almost all oblasts were characterized by a slowdown and uneven growth rate of machine-building production. The regional structure in terms of sales, exports, and imports of engineering products is determined. The imbalance between production and foreign trade in the regions is pointed out. Thus, the main part of machine-building industries is concentrated in the Eastern regions of Ukraine, which is due to a well-developed raw material base, established production capacity, the presence of research institutions, etc. Instead, the Western regions were the largest exporters of machine-building products among the regions, which is due to the high share of toll raw materials in machine-building production. The regional structure of mechanical engineering by types of activity is determined. The paper emphasizes that in the last years (2014-2019), production of machinery and equipment not included in other groups (33.13% of sold mechanical engineering products in 2019) was the most important sector of mechanical engineering in terms of the structure of sold products. At the same time, the production of other vehicles accounted for 25.74%, the production of motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers – 1 6.05%, the production of electrical equipment – 18.22%, the production of computers, electronic, and optical products – 6.86% of sales of mechanical engineering products. The paper detects the main problems of the machine-building industry raising under the influence of external and internal factors, in particular, political and economic instability, anti-epidemic measures (due to COVID-19), low level of innovation, and obsolescence of technological base of production, etc. The directions of development of machine-building productions in the regions of Ukraine are offered, for example, to develop the mechanism of preferential lending for modernization of production, to increase the state financing of research institutes, etc.