In January-November this year, Ukrainian enterprises reduced consumption of rolled metal products by 7.95% year-on-year to 2 million 995.6 thousand tons.
According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom on Wednesday, 1 million 135.6 thousand tons, or 37.91% of the domestic rolled steel market, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-November 2024, steel companies produced 5.741 million tons of rolled metal products (118% compared to the same period in 2023), of which, according to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, about 3.881 million tons, or 67.6%, were exported. In January-November 2023, the share of exports amounted to 54.4% (2.664 million tons with a total production of 4.864 million tons of rolled steel).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries in January-October 2024 amounted to 46.25%, which is significantly higher than in January-November 2023 (41.79%). The share of flat products in export deliveries for 11 months of 2024 is almost at the level of January-November 2023 (39.04% and 38.46%, respectively). The share of long products is significantly lower than in January-October 2023 (14.71% in 2024 vs. 19.74% in 2023).
“In 11 months of 2024, the domestic market capacity amounted to 3254.2 thousand tons, of which 1034.2 thousand tons, or 31.78%, were imported. Thus, for 11 months of 2024, there was a decrease in the domestic market capacity by 7.95% compared to 11 months of 2023, while the share of the import component increased by 6.13%,” the press release states.
The structure of imports in 11 months of 2024 is still characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (78.87% and 19.52%, respectively); in January-November 2023, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant (75.23% and 23.98%, respectively).
According to the State Customs Service, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled steel products in January-November 2024 were the European Union (70.3%), Africa (10.5%) and the rest of Europe (8.1%).
Other European countries ranked first among steel importers in 11 months of 2024 (50.6%), followed by the EU-27 (28.0%) and Asia (20.0%).
As reported, Ukraine’s rolled steel market increased 2.19 times in 2023 compared to 2022, to 3 million 505.6 thousand tons. The company imported 1 million 118.6 thousand tons, or 31.91% of the domestic market for these products.
Imports of passenger cars, including cargo and passenger vans and racing cars (UKT FEA code 8703), to Ukraine in monetary terms in January-November this year increased by 8.4% compared to the same period in 2023, to EUR 3.995 billion.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine on Monday, the top three countries from which cars were imported the most were the United States, Germany and Japan, while car imports from the United States increased by 9.5% to EUR734.69 million, and their share in the structure of car imports was 18.39% compared to 18.2% a year earlier.
Cars from Germany, whose share in the import structure decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 15.24%, were imported for EUR608.9 million (4.3% more), and the share of cars from Japan decreased to 11.5% from 14.4% a year earlier – they were imported for EUR462.83 million (almost 13% less).
Imports of passenger cars from other countries amounted to almost EUR2.19 billion (56.48% share), while a year earlier it was EUR1.9 billion (51.55%).
According to the statistics, in November, imports of passenger vehicles to Ukraine amounted to EUR 360.7 million, down 1.6% year-on-year.
According to the State Customs Service, in January-November, Ukraine exported such vehicles for EUR9.5 million, while a year earlier it was EUR27.3 million, with the largest exports going to Canada (EUR1.8 million), Germany (EUR1.54 million) and the US (EUR1.53 million), while last year it was to Georgia, the UAE and Germany.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not continue to transit Russian gas.
“We will not continue the transit of Russian gas, we will not allow them to earn additional billions on our blood. Any country in the world that can get something cheap from Russia will eventually become dependent on the Russian Federation, whether tomorrow or in a month or a year. This is their policy. Therefore, we will not transit Russian gas,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.
Zelenskyy noted that in a conversation with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, he said that if there is not Russian gas, but gas from another country, and there is no payment to Russia until the end of the war, Ukraine is ready to consider this option.
At the same time, Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine would not allow additional earnings for Russia.
Ukraine is expected to increase soybean production in 2024.
“Ukroliaprom” estimates the soybean harvest in the season-2024 at 6.1 million tons, which is 28% more than a year earlier. The association attributes such growth to a significant increase in production areas – by 46.6% to 2.66m hectares.
In 2024, Ukraine produced 21.7 mln tons of seeds of main oilseeds, which is 94% down compared to the previous year, according to the industry association Ukroliyaprom.
The current season sunflower production is estimated at 12 mln tonnes against 13.9 mln tonnes in 2023/24 marketing year (MY, July-2023-June 2024), which is down 14%.
The oilseed yield preliminarily decreased by 7.8% to 22.6 c/ha, the harvested area – by 5.4% to 5.3 mln ha.
As for rapeseed, Ukroliyaprom estimates its harvest at 3.6 million tons, down from 4.4 million tons in the previous season. The crop was harvested from almost 1.26 million hectares (-11.2%) with a yield of 28.4 c/ha (-2.7%).
At the same time, the association draws attention to the fact that the official information on the harvest of grains and oilseeds in Ukraine in terms of possible production of sunflower seeds has discrepancies with the estimates of various market experts, which is almost traditional for the market. Thus, with the area of 5.004 mln ha and the yield of 21 c/ha, the official sunflower seed production will reach 10.5-11.0 mln tons, which is significantly different from a number of expert estimates.
“Such discrepancies are repeated almost every year. According to the results of the marketing year, based on actual exports of oil, in particular sunflower oil, we can confirm much higher than official production of oilseeds (most of all, sunflower),” summarized Ukroliyaprom.
The Ukraine Recovery Conference will be held in Italy in July 2025.
This follows from the conclusions of the European Council meeting on Ukraine, published in Brussels on Thursday.
“The European Union remains committed to supporting Ukraine’s repair, recovery and reconstruction, in coordination with international partners. The Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Italy in July 2025 will be important in that context. The European Union will continue to work closely with Ukraine and support its reform efforts on its European path,” reads the document.
