Business news from Ukraine

Ukraine’s rolled steel market almost doubled this year

16 November , 2023  

In January-October of this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased their consumption of rolled metal products by 94.51% compared to the same period last year, up to 2 million 903.5 thousand tons.

According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom, 937.5 thousand tons, or 32.29% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market, were imported during this period.

According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-October 2023, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 4.37 million tonnes of rolled metal products (87% compared to the same period in 2022), of which, according to the Expert Scientific Council (ESC) of UAVtormet, about 2.4 million tonnes, or 55.9%, were exported. In the same period of 2022, the share of exports was 79.7% (4 million tons with a total production of 5.02 million tons of rolled metal products).

The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries for 10 months of 2023 amounted to 43.14%, which is comparable to the same period in 2022 (44.34%). The share of flat products in export deliveries for 10 months of 2023 is almost the same as in January-October 2022 (37.02% and 37.25%, respectively); the same picture is observed for long products (19.84% in 2023 vs. 19.41% in 2022).

“In January-October 2023, the domestic market capacity amounted to 2903.5 thousand tons of rolled steel, of which 937.5 thousand tons, or 32.29%, were imported. In the same period of 2022, the domestic market capacity amounted to 1492.7 thousand tons, of which 475.7 thousand tons, or 31.87%, were imported. Thus, for 10 months of 2023, there was an increase in the domestic market capacity by 94.51% compared to January-October 2022, with a simultaneous increase in the share of the import component by 0.42%,” the press release states.

The structure of imports in January-October 2023 is still characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (75.50% and 24.44%, respectively); in the same period of 2022, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant (66.16% and 32.69%, respectively).

The main export markets for Ukrainian steel products in January-October 2023, according to the data of the ETS “UAVtormet”, are the countries of the European Union (84.1%) and the rest of Europe (7.3%).

Other European countries ranked first among metallurgical importers in 10 months of 2023 (39.9%), followed by the EU-27 (38.2%), and Asia (19.7%).