Austria reduced the import of rolled steel from third countries by 53% y/y in September

In September 2023, Austria reduced imports of rolled steel products from third countries by 52.8% compared to September 2022, to 10.17 thousand tons. This is based on GMK Center’s calculations based on Eurostat data.

In September, imports of flat products fell by 57.3% y/y and imports of long products fell by 32.7% y/y – to 7.53 kt and 2.63 kt, respectively. Flat products accounted for over 74% of total steel imports to Austria in September.

Hot-rolled flat products accounted for the bulk of imports in September, with 4.75 thousand tonnes (-64.3% y/y), flat products made of other alloy steels – 2.1 thousand tonnes (-16% y/y), and other alloy steel bars and rods, hollow bars and drill bars – 1.13 thousand tonnes (-0.8% y/y).

In January-September, imports of rolled steel products to Austria amounted to 129.31 thousand tons, down 30.2% compared to the same period in 2022. Imports of long products fell by 37.4% y/y – to 36.8 thousand tons and flat products by 26.8% y/y – to 92.53 thousand tons during this period.

The main types of products imported by Austrian consumers in 9 months of 2023 are:

• flat hot-rolled – 64.84 t (-29.2% y/y);
• flat rolled products from other alloy steels – 17.85 thousand tons (+97% y/y);
• other rods and bars made of alloy steels, hollow bars and bars for drilling – 11 thousand tons (-0.3% y/y).

In September 2023, steel exports from Austria decreased by 5% y/y – to 81.84 thousand tons. Shipments of long products fell by 18.7% y/y – to 8.95 thousand tons, and flat products by 3% y/y – to 72.89 thousand tons. In January-September, the figure decreased by 3.5% y/y – to 706.5 thousand tons, including 1.1% y/y decrease in flat products – to 616.3 thousand tons and 17.1% y/y decrease in long products – to 90.19 thousand tons.

The largest exports were of flat products from other alloy steels – 278.1 thousand tons (+2.4% y/y) and hot-rolled flat products – 183.29 thousand tons (-8.3% y/y).

In January-September, steel production in Austria amounted to 5.39 million tons, which is 6.9% less than in the same period in 2022. In September, the country’s metallurgists increased steel production by 17.4% compared to the previous month and decreased by 8.7% y/y – to 514 thousand tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, Austrian steelmakers reduced steel production by 4.7% compared to 2021 – to 7.51 million tons. In December 2022, 560,000 tons of steel were produced, which is 13.8% less y/y and by 0.5% more m/m.