Consumption of steel products in Ukraine increased to 863 thousand tons in Q1

Imports account for more than 38.9% or 336.1 thousand tons

In January-March 2025, Ukraine increased consumption of steel products (rolled products and semi-finished products) by 41.4% compared to the same period in 2024, up to 863.1 thousand tons. This is evidenced by the data of Ukrmetprom.

Over 3 months, Ukraine imported 336.1 thousand tons of steel products, up 25.5% y/y. Imports account for 38.9% of the domestic rolled steel consumption market in the country. The share of the import component in domestic consumption of steel products decreased by 2.08 percentage points y/y.

The structure of imports is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products – 79.8% and 18.03%, respectively. In January-March 2024, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant – 83.15% and 15.22%, respectively.

In 3 months, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 1.43 million tons of rolled products, up 3.3% year-on-year. The company exported 908 thousand tons of steel products, down 11.7% y/y.

The domestic market received 527 thousand tons of rolled and semi-finished products, up 46.4% y/y. In January-March, Ukrainian steelmakers significantly increased shipments to the domestic market, with exports accounting for 63.3% of total output over the period, up from 74.1% a year ago.

The share of flat products in export shipments increased to 47.7%, up from 40.7% a year earlier. The share of long products in exports increased to 19.4% from 14.3%. At the same time, the share of semi-finished products fell to 32.9% from 45%.

In January-March 2025, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled steel products were the European Union (77.9%), the rest of Europe (10.9%) and the CIS (6.7%). Among steel importers, the first place is occupied by other European countries (59.4%), followed by the EU (23.2%), and the third place by Asian countries (16.9%).

As GMK Center reported earlier, consumption of steel products in Ukraine in 2024 decreased by 6.26% year-on-year to 3.288 million tons. Over the year, 1.235 million tons of steel products were imported, up 10.2% y/y, and about 4.17 million tons were exported, up 39.7% y/y. Domestic production amounted to 6.22 million tons (+15.8% y/y).