Scrap collection in Ukraine decreased by 3.5% y/y in January-August

Domestic supplies of raw materials to steel plants during this period fell by 15.8% y/y

In January-August 2023, the volume of scrap collection in Ukraine decreased by 3.5% compared to the same period in 2022 – to 754.5 thousand tons. Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals’ data (UAVtormet) reports about it.

«For 8 months, the volume of ferrous scrap collection in Ukraine continued to decrease. This trend is due to crisis phenomena in the Ukrainian collecting industry, the surplus of material on the market, and other factors,» the report says.

The supply of raw materials to Ukrainian steel plants in January-August decreased by 15.8% y/y – to 601.1 thousand tons. Technological scrap stocks at enterprises are estimated at 17-20 thousand tons. The estimated technological needs of steelmakers are fully met, with an excess of 8.1%.

The export of scrap for 8 months amounted to 117.5 thousand tons, which is 3.9 times more compared to the same period in 2022.

According to the president of the association of enterprises Ukrmetalurgprom Oleksandr Kalenkov, in 2023 it is planned to produce about 6.2 million tons of steel, for which it is necessary to provide domestic steel enterprises with imported scrap in the amount of 1.9 million tons, while the forecast of UAVtormet for 2023: 5.5-5.8 million tons of steel, and 1-1.05 million tons – internal supplies of raw materials to steel processing plants.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 volumes of scrap collection in Ukraine decreased by 75.9% compared to 2021 – to 996.7 thousand tons. The export of raw materials for the year decreased by 11.4 times y/y – to 53.6 thousand tons, import – by 92.1% y/y, to 1.8 thousand tons. Domestic supplies of raw materials to domestic steel mills decreased by 73% – to 895.7 thousand tons.