Consumption of steel products in Ukraine fell by 1% y/y in the first four months

In January–April 2026, Ukraine’s consumption of steel products decreased by 0.96% compared to the same period in 2025, falling to 1.187 million tons. This is according to data from the Ukrmetallurgprom State Enterprise.

Imports for the period totaled 506,400 tons, or 42.65% of the domestic market. For comparison, in January–April 2025, the domestic market capacity was 1.199 million tons, of which 450,900 tons, or 37.61%, were imports. Thus, despite a slight decline in total consumption, the share of imports increased by 4.95 percentage points.

The structure of imports in January–April 2026 was characterized by a noticeable dominance of flat products over long products—61.99% and 25.38%, respectively. At the same time, during the same period last year, the share of flat-rolled products was significantly higher: 78.86% versus 19.12% for long products.

In total, Ukrainian steel mills produced 1.802 million tons of rolled steel in January–April, representing 90.9% of the figure for the same period in 2025. Last year, production over the four-month period amounted to 1.982 million tons.

In January–April 2026, approximately 1.121 million tons of rolled steel were shipped for export, or 62.2% of total production. In January–April 2025, the export share was nearly identical—62.3%, or 1.234 million tons, out of a total production of 1.982 million tons.

The share of semi-finished products in the export mix increased to 39.25% from 32.06% a year earlier. The share of flat-rolled products also increased—to 51.29% compared to 44.89% in January–April 2025. In contrast, the share of long-rolled products decreased significantly—to 9.46% compared to 19.04% last year.

According to the State Customs Service, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled steel in January–April 2026 were European Union countries (80.2%), other European countries (10.9%), and the CIS (6.3%).

Among steel importers, other European countries took first place with a 50.4% share. Asian countries ranked second at 20.4%, and the EU-27 countries ranked third at 17.5%.

As a reminder, in 2025, Ukraine increased consumption of steel products by 21.7% compared to 2024—to 4 million tons. About 40.1%, or 1.6 million tons, came from imports.