Consumption of steel products in Ukraine rose by 3.6% y/y in 1H2026

The share of imports in the domestic market rose to 43.8%, compared with 37% a year earlier

In January–June 2026, Ukraine’s consumption of steel products increased by 3.6% compared with the same period in 2025, reaching 2 million tonnes. This is according to data from the state-owned enterprise Ukrmetallurgprom.

Imports for the period totalled 880.3 thousand tonnes, accounting for 43.8% of the domestic market. By way of comparison, in January–May 2025, the domestic market volume stood at 1.94 million tonnes, of which 716.7 thousand tonnes, or 37%, were accounted for by imports. Consequently, despite a slight decline in total consumption, the share of imports rose by 6.8%.

During the reporting period, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 2.94 million tonnes of rolled steel (-4.2% year-on-year), of which they exported around 1.8 million tonnes, or 6.18%.

In the import mix, flat products continue to dominate over long products, accounting for 64.4% and 28% respectively, although in January–June last year this gap was significantly wider, reaching 77.3% versus 21%.

The share of flat-rolled steel in exports for the first six months of 2026 was slightly lower compared with January–May 2025 — 43.9% versus 46.8% respectively, whilst the share of long products fell markedly from 22.3% in 2025 to 13.4% in 2026.

The main markets for Ukrainian rolled steel in the first half of the year remained the EU countries, accounting for 80%, other European countries, which accounted for 10.6%, and the CIS countries, with a share of 7%.

The key suppliers of steel products to Ukraine were other European countries, which took first place with a 48.5% share; Asian countries, in second place with 25.8%; and the EU-27, in third place, accounting for 16.4% of imports.

As reported by GMK Center, by the end of 2025, Ukraine had increased its consumption of steel products (rolled steel and semi-finished products) by 21.7% compared with 2024, reaching 4 million tonnes. Last year, 1.6 million tonnes of steel products were imported into Ukraine, a 31.2% increase year-on-year. These imports accounted for 40.1% of the domestic consumption market, whilst the overall share of imports in domestic consumption of steel products rose by 2.49% year-on-year.