Ukraine increased the export of semi-finished products by 30% m/m in November 2022

In November 2022, Ukrainian steel enterprises increased the export of semi-finished products by 30% compared to the previous month – up to 89.7 thousand tons. The revenue of enterprises from exports in November 2022 increased by 34.8% m/m – up to $53.03 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

In November 2022, shipments of semi-finished steel products abroad decreased by 76.1% in physical terms and by 77.6% in monetary terms year-on-year.

For January-November 2022, the export of semi-finished products amounted to 1.82 million tons, which is 70.6% less than in the same period last year. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products for 11 months of 2022 decreased by 69.4% y/y – to $1.15 billion.

The main importers of semi-finished products from Ukraine in 11 months of 2022 were Bulgaria (25.54% of deliveries in monetary terms), Poland (13.15%) and Italy (12.59%).

In November 2022 Ukrainian steelmakers reduced the production of rolled products by 23.2% compared to October – to 222 thousand tons. Pig iron production in November 2022 fell by 4.01% m/m – to 335 thousand tons, and steel production decreased by 1.6% m/m – to 313 thousand tons.

The low production of Ukrainian steelmakers 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 and 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 export of semi-finished products from Ukraine decreased by 9.5% compared to 2020 – to 6.8 million tons. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products increased by 48.8% year-on-year – up to $4.1 billion. The main importers of Ukrainian of semi-finished products in 2021 were Italy (30.9%), Turkiye (12.8%) and the Dominican Republic (8%).