In January-June this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased their consumption of rolled metal products by 11.65% year-on-year to 1 million 938.7 thousand tons.
According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom on Friday, 716.7 thousand tons, or 36.97% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in the first six months of 2025, steelmakers produced 3.070 million tonnes of rolled steel (97.8% compared to the same period in 2024), of which, according to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, about 1.848 million tonnes, or 60.2%, were exported. In January-June 2024, the share of exports amounted to 63.6% (1.996 million tons with a total production of 3.140 million tons of rolled metal products).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries in January-June 2025 was 30.90%, which is significantly lower than in January-June 2024 (45.39%). The share of flat products in export deliveries in January-June 2025 is significantly higher than in January-June 2024 (46.81% and 41.73%, respectively). The share of long products is also significantly higher than in January-May 2024 (22.29% in 2025 vs. 12.88% in 2024).
The structure of imports in January-June 2025 is still characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (77.31% and 20.96%, respectively); in January-June 2024, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant (80.06% and 18.30%, respectively).
“In the first six months of 2025, the domestic market capacity amounted to 1938.7 thousand tons of rolled steel, of which 716.7 thousand tons, or 36.97%, were imported. In January-June 2024, the domestic market capacity was 1736.4 thousand tons, of which 592.4 thousand tons, or 34.12%, were imported. Thus, in January-June 2025, there was an 11.65% increase in the domestic market capacity compared to January-June 2024, with a simultaneous increase in the share of the import component by 2.85%,” the press release states.
According to the State Customs Service, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled metal products in the first six months of 2025 are the European Union (83.1%), the rest of Europe (7.5%) and the CIS (6.7%).
In January-May 2025, the first place among metallurgical importers was taken by other European countries (57.4%), followed by the EU-27 (23.3%), and the third place by Asian countries (18.7%).
As reported, Ukraine’s rolled steel market in 2024 decreased by 6.26% year-on-year to 3 million 288.4 thousand tons, while in 2023 it increased 2.19 times compared to 2022 to 3 million 505.6 thousand tons.
