Ukraine’s steelmakers increased the export of semi-finished products by 7.6% m/m in July

In July 2023, Ukrainian steel enterprises increased the export of semi-finished products by 7.6% compared to the previous month – up to 109.3 thousand tons. The income of producers from export for the month increased by 3.2% m/m – up to $55.47 million. This is evidenced by data State Customs Service.

Compared to July 2022, in July 2023, the metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine increased the volume of exports of semi-finished products by 46.8%, and revenue – by 2.3%.

According to the results of January-July 2023, Ukraine exported 658.73 thousand tons of semi-finished products for $354.2 million. Export volumes of slabs and billets decreased by 56.1% compared to the same period in 2022, and revenue from shipments – by 62.9 %.

The main importers of semi-finished products from Ukraine in January-July 2023 were Bulgaria (33.71% of supplies in monetary terms), Poland (31.6%) and Turkey (7.45%).

The export of semi-finished products from Ukraine since the beginning of 2023 has been gradually resuming and growing in monthly dynamics, in particular, in February, the indicator in physical terms increased by 80.6% m/m, in March – by 25.5% m/m. , in April – by 24% m/m, in May – by 54.8% m/m, and in June the indicator fell by 33.1% m/m.

This trend reflected an increase in steel production by Ukrainian metallurgists. In June, exports fell amid a reduction in capacity due to the undermining of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station by Russian troops. This caused the suspension of steel and rolled products production at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and disruptions in the operation of some Ukrainian MMC enterprises. In July, production and exports began to resume.

In particular, following the results of July, Ukrainian metallurgists increased steel production by 37.5% compared to June. In January-July, 3.43 million tons of steel were produced (-28.8% yoy).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, export of semi-finished products from Ukraine decreased by 72% compared to 2021 – to 1.89 million tons. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products fell by 70.9% y/y last year – to $1.19 billion. The main importers of Ukrainian semi-finished products in 2022 were Bulgaria (25.55%), Poland (13.97%) and Italy (12.13%).