In January–June of this year, Ukraine increased its exports of carbon steel semi-finished products by 35.8% in volume terms compared to the same period last year—to 766,603 metric tons from 564,683 metric tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), 163,183 thousand metric tons of semi-finished products were exported in June, 165,050 thousand metric tons in May, in April—116,550 thousand metric tons, in March—138,203 thousand metric tons, in February—61,629 thousand metric tons, and in January—121,988 thousand metric tons.
In monetary terms, exports of carbon steel semi-finished products during this period increased by 39.6% to $388.650 million. The main export destinations were Bulgaria (36.59% of shipments in monetary terms), Turkey (13.44%), and Poland (12.90%).
In the first six months of 2026, Ukraine imported 40,805 thousand metric tons of semi-finished products worth $26,990 million from Oman (80.71%), the Czech Republic (13.03%), and Germany (4.93%), whereas in January–June 2025, it imported 3,303 thousand metric tons worth $2,687 million.
As reported, in 2025, Ukraine reduced its exports of semi-finished steel products by 26.4% in volume terms compared to the previous year—to 1,388,183 thousand metric tons—while revenue fell by 28.9% to $659.625 million. The main export destinations were Bulgaria (32.73% of shipments in monetary terms), Poland (22.13%), and Turkey (14.88%).
Last year, Ukraine imported 88,923 thousand metric tons of semi-finished products worth $65.989 million, mainly from Oman (37.42%), Germany (22.21%), and the Czech Republic (16.71%), whereas in 2024, it imported 306 metric tons of semi-finished products worth $278 thousand.
Ukrainian steelmakers reduced steel production by 3.2% in January–June of this year compared to the same period last year, down to 3.566 million metric tons.
According to information released by the “Ukrmetallurgprom” association on Wednesday, 690,800 metric tons of steel were produced in June, 629,400 metric tons in May, 517,300 metric tons in April, 702,300 metric tons in March, in February—515 thousand metric tons, and in January—511.1 thousand metric tons.
As previously reported, Ukraine’s steel companies reduced steel production by 2.2% in 2025, to 7.409 million metric tons.
In 2024, Ukraine increased steel production by 21.6% compared to 2023, reaching 7.575 million metric tons. In 2023, steel production fell by 0.6% to 6.228 million metric tons, and in 2022, it fell by 70.7% to 6.263 million metric tons.
In 2021, before the war, 21.366 million metric tons of steel were produced, or 103.6% of the 2020 level.
The Zaporizhzhia Metallurgical Plant “Zaporizhstal” reduced its rolled steel shipments by 6.3% in January–June of this year compared to the same period last year—to 1,272,200 metric tons from 1,317,500 metric tons.
According to the company’s press release, steel production for the first six months of the year totaled 1,442.9 thousand metric tons (compared to 1,564.1 thousand metric tons in January–June 2025), while pig iron production totaled 1,556.2 thousand metric tons (compared to 1,719.4 thousand metric tons).
In June, Zaporizhstal produced 301.2 thousand metric tons of pig iron and 284.9 thousand metric tons of steel, and shipped 243.7 thousand metric tons of rolled steel, whereas in the previous month it produced 242.1 thousand metric tons of pig iron, 243.4 thousand metric tons of steel, and shipped 208.9 thousand metric tons of rolled steel.
As reported, in 2025, Zaporizhstal increased its rolled steel output by 15.2% compared to the previous year—to 2,794.6 thousand metric tons from 2,426.7 thousand metric tons. Steel production amounted to 3,212,200 metric tons (compared to 2,890,800 metric tons in 2024), and pig iron production to 3,567,800 metric tons (compared to 3,106,300 metric tons).
In 2024, Zaporizhstal increased its rolled steel output by 18.1% compared to 2023—to 2,426,700 metric tons from 2,054,700 metric tons—and its steel output by 17.2%, to 2,890.8 thousand metric tons, and pig iron by 14.2%, to 3,106.3 thousand metric tons.
“Zaporizhstal” is one of Ukraine’s largest industrial enterprises, whose products are in high demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries around the world.
Zaporizhstal is a joint venture of the Metinvest Group, whose main shareholders are PJSC System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Steel Limited (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
Ukrainian steelmakers reduced steel production by 6.12% in January–May of this year compared to the same period last year, down to 2.875 million tons.
According to data from the Ukrmetallurgprom association, 629,400 tons of steel were produced in May, 517,300 tons in April, 702,300 tons in March, in February—515,000 tons, and in January—511,100 tons.
As reported, Ukraine’s steel companies reduced steel production by 2.2% in 2025—to 7.409 million tons.
In 2024, Ukraine increased steel production by 21.6% compared to 2023—to 7.575 million tons. In 2023, steel production decreased by 0.6% to 6.228 million tons, and in 2022, by 70.7% to 6.263 million tons.
In 2021, before the war, 21.366 million tons of steel were produced, or 103.6% of the 2020 level.
The ‘Kametstal’ plant, part of the “Metinvest” mining and metallurgical group and established at the facilities of the Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), has reduced electricity consumption in its converter shop by 6 kWh per ton of steel produced, from 27.4 to 21.4 kWh/t, through measures to reduce equipment load during periods between smelting runs.
According to the company, in particular, the downtime for unloading converter exhaust fan rotors has been cut in half. Operations have been organized on a rotational basis for each of the two converters, allowing equipment not involved in the current melt to be shut down and minimizing idle time, thereby ensuring a systematic reduction in electricity consumption.
In addition, electricity consumption by circulation pumps No. 1 and No. 2—which supply water to the converter gas cooling boilers on both operating converters—has been reduced by 1.2 kWh/t. As part of the investment project, frequency converters and modern controllers from Schneider were installed on CN-1 and CN-2. This allows for the automatic unloading of pumping equipment in accordance with the steelmaking process, thereby minimizing its electricity consumption between converter purges.
In the post-converter steel processing department, electricity consumption was reduced by 4.6 kWh/t through the phased implementation of effective engineering solutions to optimize metal heating. At the same time, the algorithm for automatic control of the metal heating process in the “furnace-ladle” unit was refined and improved by selecting the optimal combination of heating stages and heating rates.
Kametsal was established on the basis of PJSC Dniprovsky Coke Chemical Plant (DKCHZ) and PJSC Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMP). It is part of the Metinvest Group.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its facilities are located in Ukraine—in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions—as well as in European countries. The holding’s main shareholders are the SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
According to the 2025 results, Ukraine increased its apparent steel consumption by 13.9% compared to 2024—from 3.6 million tons to 4.1 million tons, according to data from Worldsteel’s annual compendium.
Per capita steel consumption in Ukraine reached 105.3 kg in 2025, compared to 95.9 kg a year earlier. Globally, this figure averaged 209 kg per person, compared to 214.8 kg in 2024.
According to Worldsteel, Ukraine produced 7.4 million tons of steel in 2025 and ranked 23rd in the global ranking of producers. In 2024, the country produced 7.6 million tons of steel and ranked 22nd.
There are no Ukrainian companies on the list of the world’s 50 largest steel producers for the 2022–2025 period, whereas the Metinvest Group was included in this ranking in 2014–2021.
The world’s largest steelmaker in 2025, as in 2024 and 2023, was China Baowu Group, with production of 124.76 million tons of steel. In second place is ArcelorMittal with 63.43 million tons, followed by Nippon Steel Corporation with 57.78 million tons, Ansteel Group with 57.61 million tons, and HBIS Group with 42.49 million tons.
According to the results for 2022–2025, Ukraine did not make it into the top 20 largest steel exporters, whereas in 2021 it ranked 10th, having sold 15.7 million tons of steel products on foreign markets.
At the same time, in the ranking of net exporters, Ukraine ranked 9th in the world in 2025 with a volume of 1.7 million tons, compared to 10th place and 3.4 million tons in 2024.
In addition, Ukraine exported 0.4 million tons of ferrous metal scrap in 2025, compared to 0.3 million tons in 2024.
