Ukrainian enterprises increased exports of ferrous scrap by 54.5% in January-October this year compared to the same period last year, up to 226,970 thousand tons from 146,927 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service, 24.549 thousand tons of scrap were exported in October, 24.767 thousand tons in September, 28.425 thousand tons in August, and 24.425 thousand tons in July. tons, in July – 24,702 thousand tons, in June – 22,161 thousand tons, in May – 14,952 thousand tons, in April – 26,153 thousand tons, in March – 20,907 thousand tons, in February – 23,194 thousand tons, in January – 17,160 thousand tons.
In monetary terms, scrap exports increased by 70.7% to $71.862 million from $42.088 million.
In January-October, Ukraine exported scrap mainly to Poland (84.70%), Greece (11.53%) and Germany (3.40%).
For the first ten months of the year, the country imported 90 tons of scrap for $104 thousand, while in January-October 2023, 793 tons of scrap were imported for $301 thousand. Imports this year were carried out 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 scrap exports 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 a column on the Interfax-Ukraine website that scrap 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.
