In January-August this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased their consumption of rolled metal products by 92.46% year-on-year to 2.322 million tons.
According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom, 706.5 thousand tons, or 30.43% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-August 2023, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 3.406 million tons of rolled steel (76.1% compared to the same period in 2022), of which, according to the Expert and Scientific Council of UAVtormet, about 1.791 million tons, or 52.6%, were exported. In the same period of 2022, the share of exports amounted to about 80.3% (3.595 million tons with a total production of 4.477 million tons of rolled metal products).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries for the first eight months of 2023 amounted to 43.59%, which is comparable to the same period in 2022 (44.21%). The share of flat products in exports in the first eight months of 2023 is significantly lower than in January-August 2022 (34.92% and 38.20%, respectively). The share of long products in export deliveries for the first eight months of 2023 is significantly higher than in the same period of 2022 (21.50% in 2023 vs. 17.60% in 2022).
“In January-August 2023, the domestic market capacity amounted to 2.322 million tons of rolled steel, of which 706.5 thousand tons or 30.43% were imported. In the same period of 2022, the domestic market capacity amounted to 1 million 206.5 thousand tons, of which 324.7 thousand tons, or 26.91%, were imported. Thus, in the first eight months of 2023, there was an increase in the domestic market capacity by 92.46% compared to January-August 2022, with a simultaneous increase in the share of the import component by 3.51%,” the press release states.
The structure of imports in January-August 2023 is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (75.41% and 24.50%, respectively); in the same period of 2022, the dominance of flat products over long products was slightly lower, but also noticeable (59.04% and 39.27%, respectively).
The main export markets for Ukrainian steel products in January-August 2023, according to the data of the United National Research and Production Association “UVTORMET”, are the countries of the European Union (85.5%) and the rest of Europe (7.1%).
Among metallurgical importers in the first eight months of 2023, the first place is occupied by other European countries (38.6%), the second by the EU-27 (38.4%), and the third by Asian countries (20.6%).
