In January-February this year, Ukrainian companies increased exports of ferrous scrap by 62.6% year-on-year to 40,354 thousand tons from 24,822 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Wednesday, exports of scrap metal increased 2.15 times in monetary terms to $12.903 million from $7.104 million.
Scrap metal exports in January-February were carried out to Poland (95.50%), Germany (4.39%) and Lithuania (0.09%).
In February, 23,194 thousand tons of scrap metal were exported (17,160 thousand tons in January) for $7.825 million ($5.078 million in January).
In the first two months of the year, the country imported 191 thousand tons of scrap metal for $68 thousand. Imports were carried out from Slovakia (77.94% in monetary terms), Poland (16.18%) and Moldova (5.88%), while in January-February 2023, 45 thousand tons were imported for $16 thousand.
As reported, in 2023, the scrap collecting enterprise of Ukraine 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 in the ongoing 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.
