EU cuts steel exports to third countries by 1% y/y in January-April – EUROFER

In January-April 2024, EU steelmakers reduced steel exports (rolled and semi-finished products) to third countries by 1% compared to the same period in 2023. This is stated in the Association’s review “Economic and steel market outlook 2024-2025, Q3”.

Exports of rolled products increased by 3% y/y over 4 months, including flat products – by 2% y/y and long products – by 5% y/y.

In the first quarter of 2024, European steelmakers reduced steel exports by 1% y/y. However, exports of rolled products increased by 3% y/y. In particular, exports of flat products increased by 2% y/y and long products – by 5% y/y.

The main export destinations for finished products during the period were the UK (226 thousand tons), the US (194 thousand tons), Turkey (192 thousand tons), Switzerland (119 thousand tons), Egypt (44 thousand tons), China (43 thousand tons), the UAE (36 thousand tons) and Ukraine (30 thousand tons). The top five countries account for more than 55% of total EU rolled steel exports.

Flat products accounted for 67% of finished product shipments in January-April. Exports of hot-rolled flat products amounted to 244 thousand tons, exports of flat products – 169 thousand tons, and exports of cold-rolled flat products – 156 thousand tons.

In 2023, exports of rolled products from the EU fell by 3% compared to 2022. In particular, flat products decreased by 9% y/y and long products increased by 10% y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, EUROFER expects apparent steel consumption in the EU to grow by 1.4% in 2024 compared to 2023, to 127 million tons. The previous forecast envisaged an increase of 3.2% y/y – to 130 million tons. Expectations for the growth of apparent steel consumption in the EU in 2025 have also been downgraded from +5.6% to +4.1%. At the same time, consumption volumes decreased from 137 million tons to 133 million tons.