Consumption of steel products in Ukraine increased by 7.7% y/y in the first half of the year

In January-June 2024, Ukraine increased consumption of steel products (rolled products and semi-finished products) by 7.7% compared to the same period in 2023, up to 1.74 million tons. This is evidenced by the data of Ukrmetalurgprom.

Over 6 months, Ukraine imported 592.4 thousand tons of steel products, up 3.4% compared to January-June 2023. Imports account for 34.1% of the domestic rolled steel consumption market in the country. The share of imports in domestic consumption of steel products increased by 3.95 percentage points y/y.

The structure of imports is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products – 80.06% and 18.3%, respectively. In January-June 2023, the dominance of flat products over long products was slightly lower, but still noticeable – 78.88% and 20.09%, respectively.

In 6 months, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 3.14 million tons of rolled products, up 32.3% year-on-year. The company exported 1.99 million tons of steel products, up 58.8% y/y.

The domestic market received 1.14 million tons of rolled and semi-finished products, up 2.4% y/y. In January-June, Ukrainian steelmakers reduced shipments to the domestic market, with exports accounting for 63.9% of total output over 6 months, down from 52.9% a year ago.

The share of flat products in export shipments increased to 41.7% over 6 months, up from 33.6% a year earlier. The share of long products in exports decreased to 12.9% from 20.4%.

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.

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).