Ukraine exported 87.6 thousand tons of steel semi-finished products in August 2022

Export of slabs and billets in August 2022 increased by 17.8% m/m, and decreased by 85.1% year-on-year

In August 2022, Ukrainian steel enterprises increased the export of semi-finished products by 17.8% compared to the previous month – to 87.6 thousand tons. The revenue of enterprises from exports in August 2022 decreased by 0.7% m/m – to $53.83 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

On an annual basis, shipments of semi-finished products abroad in August 2022 decreased by 85.1% in physical terms and by 87.5% in monetary terms.

For January-August 2022, the export of semi-finished products amounted to 1.59 million tons, which is 66.7% less than in the same period last year. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products decreased by 63.6% y/y in 8 months of 2022 – to $1.01 billion.

The main importers of semi-finished products from Ukraine in the first 8 months of 2022 were Bulgaria (21.91% of deliveries in monetary terms), Italy (13.96%) and Turkey (12.22%).

At the same time, in 8 months of 2022, Ukraine imported 5.53 thousand tons of semi-finished products. This is 64% less compared to January-August 2021. In monetary terms, the import of semi-finished products in January-August 2022 decreased by 63.4% y/y – up to $3.58 million. Imports were made from the Russian Federation (98.49% of deliveries), China (0.25%) and Romania (1.23%).

In August 2022 Ukrainian steelmakers increased the production of rolled products by 17.5% compared to July 2022 – to 248 thousand tons. Pig iron production in August 2022 increased by 20.9% m/m – up to 335,000 tons, and steel output by 30.2% m/m – up to 366,000 tons.

The low production is connected with logistical problems, the unfavorable situation of the world market, as well as with the destruction due to hostilities of the two largest enterprises of Ukrainian iron&steel industry – Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, Europe became the only market for Ukrainian products. At the same time, it is difficult and expensive to deliver goods by rail. The costs of steelmakers for the shipment of rolled steel to customers increased at least by 2 times, and the demand for products fell due to unfavorable market conditions.

As GMK Center reported earlier, In 2021 Ukraine decreased exports of semi-finished products by 9.5%, to 6.8 million tons y-o-y. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products increased by 48.8% year-on-year – to $4.1 billion. The main importers of Ukrainian of semi-finished products in 2021 were Italy (30.9%), Turkey (12.8%) and the Dominican Republic (8%).