Scrap exports from Ukraine increased by 22.1% y/y in August

In August 2025, the Ukrainian scrap industry increased exports of ferrous scrap by 22.1% compared to August 2024 and decreased by 22.6% – to 34.71 thousand tons compared to the previous month. This is according to GMK Center’s calculations based on the State Customs Service data.

Poland remains the key destination for raw materials exports. The Polish market received 28.81 thousand tons of scrap (+15.1% y/y, -14.4% m/m), which is 70.5% of the total supply. A small part of it was shipped to Greece – 2.85 thousand tons (-45.2% y/y, -34.8% m/m), Bulgaria – 1.51 thousand tons.

In January-August, shipments of scrap from Ukraine increased by 59.3% compared to the same period in 2024 – up to 283.05 thousand tons. Poland exported 236.84 thousand tons of raw materials (+55.5% y/y), Greece – 19.29 thousand tons (-1.3% y/y), Bulgaria – 5.48 thousand tons (0.02 thousand tons in January-August 2024), Germany – 3.28 thousand tons (-36.7% y/y).

Revenue from scrap exports in August fell by 24.4% compared to the previous month and increased by 7.5% y/y – to $9.93 million. In January-August, the figure increased by 49.7% y/y – to $85.4 million.

In 2024, Ukraine’s scrap exports increased by 60% compared to 2023, to 293.2 thousand tons. In 2023, the volume of raw materials shipped abroad exceeded 182.5 thousand tons, which is 3.4 times more than in 2022, while in 2022 the figure was 54.1 thousand tons. The key consumers of raw materials last year were Poland (248.6 thousand tons), Greece (34.2 thousand tons), and Germany (6.5 thousand tons).

In recent years, Poland has actually become a transit area for Ukrainian scrap, which is then sent to Turkey, bypassing the €180/t export duty. Data show that in 2024, exports of Polish scrap to Turkey more than doubled to 529 thousand tons compared to 228 thousand tons a year earlier, and since 2022, the volume has almost tripled. At the same time, imports of raw materials from Ukraine increased sharply: from 15.6 thousand tons in 2022 to 159 thousand tons in 2023 and 251 thousand tons in 2024. These dynamics indicate that Ukrainian scrap metal is likely to be re-exported via Poland to Turkish steel mills.

Recently, it was reported that in July 2025, after a year-long pause, Ukrainian scrap was shipped for export to Transnistria, a Russian enclave in the Republic of Moldova. In addition, UAVtormet asked the State Customs Service to officially clarify the procedure for customs clearance of scrap (HS 7204) when it is exported to the pro-Russian enclave of Transnistria. This may indicate an intention to increase the supply of raw materials in this direction, which is considered unacceptable for Ukraine.

According to GMK Center’s research, in the long run, scrap metal will gradually lose its status as an export commodity due to global trade barriers. Scrap is increasingly viewed as a strategic resource for green metallurgy and decarbonization, so countries are seeking to preserve raw materials for their own needs. It cannot be produced in the required quantity in a timely manner, so an affordable price in the domestic market is becoming a key condition for the competitiveness of national steel producers.

In such circumstances, it makes more sense to export finished steel made from scrap rather than scrap itself, as steelmakers are among the largest taxpayers in Ukraine.