Ukrainian companies increased exports of ferrous scrap by 62.4% year-on-year in January-November this year, up to 261,578 thousand tons from 161,025 thousand tons.
According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service on Monday, 34.608 thousand tons of scrap were exported in November, 24.549 thousand tons in October, 24.767 thousand tons in September, and 28.767 thousand tons in August. tons, in August – 28,425 thousand tons, in July – 24,702 thousand tons, in June – 22,161 thousand tons, in May – 14,952 thousand tons, in April – 26,153 thousand tons, in March – 20,907 thousand tons, in February – 23,194 thousand tons, in January – 17,160 thousand tons.
In monetary terms, scrap exports increased by 76.8% to $82.056 million from $46.406 million.
In January-November, Ukraine exported scrap mainly to Poland (82.56%), Greece (12.58%) and Germany (3.49%).
For the eleven months of the year, the country imported 100 tons of scrap metal for $108 thousand, while in January-November 2023, 987 tons were imported for $383 thousand. This year’s imports were carried out mainly from Turkey (65.74% in monetary terms), the British Virgin Islands (16.67%) and Panama (6.48%).
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine’s scrap collecting enterprise increased scrap exports from the country by 3.4 times compared to the previous year – up to 182,485 thousand tons from 53,557 thousand tons. In monetary terms, exports increased 2.74 times to $52.723 million from $19.271 million.
Earlier, Ukrmetallurgprom President Oleksandr Kalenkov stated in a column on the Interfax-Ukraine website that scrap is exported through the European Union, which has a preferential export duty of EUR3 per ton, and from there the raw materials are redirected to real customers. He noted that exporting raw materials directly to customers would cost EUR180 in export duties, and the Ukrainian budget has already lost UAH 350 million.
The head of Ukrmetallurgprom called for a temporary ban on the export of ferrous scrap to provide steelmakers with strategically important raw materials in the face of the ongoing war. He also clarified that a ton of scrap processed into steel brings in 10 times more to the budget than the EU export duty, which is about $300 per ton.
In 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of ferrous scrap by 11.5 times compared to the previous year, to 53,557 thousand tons, and in monetary terms, it decreased by 12.4 times, to $19.271 million.
