The aim of the article is the analysis of economic indicators of industrial enterprises of Ukraine as a basis for prioritizing the need to intensify management of their economic behavior. The authors analyze the indicators of socio-economic development of Ukraine for the period 2010–2018; the changes in the volumes and structure of industrial products sold in Ukraine for 2014–2019, in particular those in the volume of products sold in the processing industry; the changes in sales volumes of engineering products; the financial results of industrial enterprises in general and engineering ones in particular. All this has allowed to draw conclusions about the state of the industrial sector in Ukraine, namely: at present, there observed a gradual overcoming of the consequences of the financial crisis and the political and economic consequences; the problem of the development of mechanical engineering is in the outdated material and technical base that influences its general competitiveness due to the impact on the quality and cost of products, which results in their non-compliance with the requirements of the world market; operating profitability is low and decreases in 2018, which does not allow enterprises to grow and also stimulates the low innovation activity since the main source for financing the innovation process is the own funds of enterprises; the quantitative composition of workers in industrial enterprises is declining while the qualitative composition is deteriorating, which results from the fact that wages are significantly lower than the world average ones, and the outflow of highly qualified personnel continues due to labor migration; an insignificant share of mechanical engineering in the structure of industry of Ukraine, namely 11.77 % as of 2019; high resource consumption, energy intensity, and material consumption of engineering products, as well as low rates of development, mastering and manufacturing of new products. All this makes it possible to prioritize the need to intensify management of the economic behavior of enterprises as a way for developing industry in Ukraine.
