Ukrainian companies in January-March this year increased exports of scrap ferrous metals 5.7 times compared to the same period last year – up to 40.255 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), the export of scrap metal for the period amounted to $11.725 million in monetary terms.
However, there was an increase in exports of scrap metal in March: 24.8 thousand tons was exported in the first two months of this year, including 8.280 thousand tons in January, and 15.5 thousand tons in the third month of the year alone.
Exports of scrap metal in January-March 2023 was carried out in Poland (96.65%), the Netherlands (1.31%) and Slovakia (0.95%).
In the first two months of the year, the country did not import scrap metal, but in March it imported 46 tons of scrap metal worth $16 thousand from Slovakia.
Earlier, the president of Ukrmetallurgprom Alexander Kalenkov in his column on the Interfax-Ukraine noted that scrap metal is exported through the European Union, which has a preferential export duty of EUR3, and from there the raw material is redirected to the real customers. To export raw material directly to customers would cost EUR 180 export duties, and the Ukrainian budget has already lost 350 million hryvnias on it.
According to him, the State Bureau of Investigation has already taken interest in such export schemes.
The head of “Ukrmetallurgprom” urged to temporarily ban the export of scrap ferrous metals to provide the strategically important raw materials in the ongoing war.
“If scrap metal will remain in the country – more than 500 thousand people will have jobs, and the country will have millions of foreign exchange earnings from the export of steel. At the same time, the military also benefits – because metallurgists help the fighters a lot, buying for them equipment and cars, and even producing body armor. Nobody benefits from the export of scrap metal. That is why now the authorities should be proactive and temporarily ban the export until the situation stabilizes and stops threatening the national economic security”, says Kalenkov.
He noted that 1 ton of scrap metal, processed into steel, provides the budget 10 times more than the export duty in the EU – about $300 per ton.
As reported, Ukraine in 2022, reduced exports of scrap ferrous metals in 11.5 times compared to the previous year – up to 53.557 tons, in monetary terms down to 12.4 times – to $ 19.271 million. At the same time last year, the country reduced the import of scrap metal in kind by 12.6 times – to 1.824 tons. Imports of scrap metal in 2022 was carried out mainly from Turkey (78.92% of supplies in monetary terms), Russia (13.25%) and Cyprus (5.08%), while exports – to Turkey (38.97%), Poland (34.25%) and Greece (10.12%).
