In January-September of this year, Ukrainian companies increased exports of ferrous scrap by 54.4% year-on-year to 202,421 thousand tons from 131,131 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service on Tuesday, 24.767 thousand tons of scrap were exported in September, 28.425 thousand tons in August, 24.702 thousand tons in July, 22.161 thousand tons in June, 14.952 thousand tons in May, 26.153 thousand tons in April, 20.907 thousand tons in March, 23.194 thousand tons in February and 17.160 thousand tons in January.
In monetary terms, scrap exports increased by 71.4% to $64.703 million from $37.749 million.
In January-September, Ukraine exported scrap metal mainly to Poland (83.40%), Greece (12.81%) and Germany (3.44%).
In the first nine months of the year, the country imported 90 tons of scrap metal worth $104 thousand, while in January-September 2023, 793 tons of scrap metal worth $301 thousand were imported. This year’s imports were mainly from Turkey (68.27% in monetary terms), the British Virgin Islands (13.46%) and Panama (6.73%).
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine’s scrap collecting enterprise increased the export of scrap metal 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 an op-ed on the Interfax-Ukraine website that scrap metal 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 during the war.
He also clarified that a ton of scrap metal 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.
