Austria imported 161.7 thousand tons of steel from third countries in 2023

In 2023, Austria reduced imports of rolled steel products from third countries by 32.5% compared to 2022, to 161.73 thousand tons. This is according to GMK Center’s calculations based on Eurostat data.

Imports of flat products decreased by 30.4% y/y and long products by 37.3% y/y – to 116.65 kt and 45.08 kt, respectively. Flat products accounted for more than 72% of total steel imports to Austria in 2023.

Hot-rolled flat products accounted for the bulk of imports – 81.73 thousand tons (-31.7% y/y), flat products of other alloy steels – 23.2 thousand tons (+42.4% y/y), and other rods and bars of other alloy steels; hollow rods and bars for drilling – 14.45 thousand tons (+5.3% y/y).

In December, imports of rolled steel products to Austria amounted to 11.99 thousand tons, down 30.3% y/y. Supplies of long products increased by 38.3% y/y – to 1.75 thousand tons, while flat products decreased by 35.8% y/y – to 10.24 thousand tons.

Last year, steel exports from Austria decreased by 3.9% compared to 2022, to 916.1 thousand tons. In particular, exports of long products fell by 14.8% y/y – to 117.65 thousand tons, and flat products by – 2.1% y/y, to 798.43 million tons.

The largest exports were flat products of other alloy steels – 367.34 thousand tons (+7.2% y/y), hot-rolled flat products – 232.31 thousand tons (-13.8% y/y), and coated flat products – 94.7 thousand tons (+7.2% y/y).

In December, Austria exported 56.2 thousand tons of rolled steel, which is 19.2% less than in December 2022. Exports of long products fell by 16.5% y/y – to 6.1 thousand tons, and flat products by 19.5% y/y – to 50.1 thousand tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Austria reduced steel production by 5% compared to 2022, to 7.13 million tons. The average monthly steel production amounted to 594.4 thousand tons, while in the same period in 2022 the figure was 626 thousand tons (-5.04% y/y).

Steel production in the European Union amounted to 126.3 million tons in 2023, down 7.4% y/y.

There are 2 Voestalpine steel plants in Austria, including Voestalpine Stahl Linz with an annual capacity of 6 million tons of steel and Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz with an annual capacity of 1.57 million tons.

The total capacity of the plants is 7.57 million tons per year. Thus, in 2023, capacity utilization was 94.2%.