Consumption of steel products in Ukraine decreased by 37.1% y/y in January

In January 2024, Ukraine reduced consumption of steel products (rolled products and semi-finished products) by 37.1% compared to the same month in 2023, to 137.7 thousand tons. This is evidenced by the data of Ukrmetalurgprom.

During the month, 85.1 thousand tons of steel products were imported to Ukraine, which is 59.5% more than in January 2023. Imports account for 61.8% of the domestic rolled steel consumption market in the country. The share of imports in domestic consumption of steel products increased by 37.4 percentage points y/y.

The structure of imports is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products – 83.92% and 15.11%, respectively. In January 2023, the dominance of flat products over long products was slightly lower, but still noticeable – 76.62% and 22.28%, respectively.

In January, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 453 thousand tons of rolled products, up 75.9% compared to January 2023. The company shipped 400.4 thousand tons of steel products for export, up 4.4 times year-on-year.

The domestic market received 52.6 thousand tons of rolled and semi-finished products, down 68.3% y/y. In January, Ukrainian steelmakers reduced shipments of products to the domestic market, with the share of exports in total output amounting to 11.6% in the month, compared to 64.6% in January 2023.

The share of flat products in export deliveries increased to 35.5% over the month, up from 29.5% a year earlier. The share of long products in exports decreased to 10.8% from 25.9%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Ukrainian steelmakers increased their rolled steel production by 0.4% year-on-year – to 5.37 million tons. In December, Ukrainian steelmakers increased rolled steel production by 1.8% month-on-month and 4.7 times year-on-year – to 508 thousand tons.