Consumption of steel products in Ukraine fell by 24.9% y/y in January-February

In January-February 2024, Ukraine reduced consumption of steel products (rolled products and semi-finished products) by 24.9% compared to the same period in 2023, to 493.3 thousand tons. This is evidenced by the data of Ukrmetalurgprom.

For 2 months, Ukraine imported 171.2 thousand tons of steel products, which is 31.4% more than in January-February 2023. Imports account for 46.2% of the domestic rolled steel consumption market in the country. The share of the import component in domestic consumption of steel products increased by 19.8 percentage points y/y.

The structure of imports is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products – 85.05% and 13.7%, respectively. In January-February 2023, the dominance of flat products over long products was slightly lower, but still noticeable – 77.97% and 20.49%, respectively.

In 2 months, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 900 thousand tons of rolled products, up 52.5% year-on-year. 701 thousand tons of steel products were exported, up 209% y/y.

The domestic market received 199 thousand tons of rolled and semi-finished products, down 45.2% y/y. In January-February, Ukrainian steelmakers reduced shipments to the domestic market, with exports accounting for 77.9% of total output over the two months, down from 38.5% a year ago.

The share of flat products in export shipments increased to 38.66% over 2 months, up from 28.19% a year earlier. The share of long products in exports decreased to 13.84% from 24.23%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Ukrainian steelmakers increased rolled steel production by 0.4% year-on-year to 5.37 million tons in 2023. 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.

Consumption of steel products in 2023 increased by 119.3% compared to 2022 – to 3.506 million tons. Imports amounted to 1.12 million tons (+79.9% y/y), and exports amounted to 2.98 million tons (-31.7% y/y).