Ukraine cut production of rolled steel products by 6.2% in January–May

In January–May 2020, Ukrainian steelmaking companies decreased production of rolled steel products by 6.2% to 7.43 million tons compared to the same period of the previous year, according to Ukrmetallurgprom based on its own data and information from ETR-Spektr LLC.

The export share in sales of rolled products totaled 83.5% or 6.21 million tons, 3.1 percentage points down from January–May 2019.

The share of semi-finished products in the total volume of Ukraine’s foreign trade reached 49.74% over the first five months of 2020. This is 4.36 percentage points up from January–May 2019.

The share of flat products in exports in January–May was slightly lower compared to the first five months of 2019 (32.05% and 34.00% respectively), so was the share of rolled sections (18.21% and 20.62% respectively).

Domestic consumption amounted to 1.66 million tons of rolled products, of which the share of imports was 26.2% or 434.7 thousand tons. The share of imports was 7.6 percentage points down from January–May last year.

The share of imports of flat products increased and exceeded that of rolled sections, 50.98% against 47.20%.

The main export markets for Ukrainian metal products in January–April 2020 were:

• EU countries (31.1%);
• Africa (14.8%);
• other European countries (14.1%).

Sources of Ukraine’s imports were:

• CIS (39.1%);
• EU (26.1%);
• Asia (18%).

In 2019, Ukrainian steelmaking companies reduced production of rolled steel products by 0.9% to 18.20 million tons against the previous year. The export share in sales of rolled products totaled 81.2% or 14.94 million tons.