Ukrainian steelmakers increased the export of semi-finished products by 11.4% m/m in August

In August 2023, Ukrainian steel enterprises increased the export of semi-finished products by 11.4% compared to the previous month – up to 121.7 thousand tons. Producers’ income from exports for the month increased by 1.8% m/m – up to $56.5 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

Compared to August 2022, in August 2023, Ukrainian steel enterprises increased export volumes of semi-finished products by 38.8% and revenue – by 4.9%.

In January-August 2023, Ukraine exported 780.4 thousand tons of semi-finished products worth $410.7 million. Export volumes of slabs and billets decreased by 50.9% compared to the same period in 2022, and revenue from shipments decreased by 59.3%.

The main importers of semi-finished products from Ukraine in January-August 2023 were Bulgaria (35.8% of supplies in monetary terms), Poland (27.8%) and Romania (7.51%).

Exports of semi-finished products from Ukraine have been gradually resuming and growing since the beginning of 2023. The largest volumes of shipments were recorded in May 2023, when Ukrainian steelmakers exported 152 thousand tons of slabs and billets. In June, exports fell again by about 100 thousand tons and are gradually resuming.

This trend reflects an increase in steel production by Ukrainian steelmakers. In June, exports fell amid a reduction in capacity due to the explosion of the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station by Russian troops. This caused the suspension of steel and rolled products production at ArcelorMittal Krivyi Rih and disruptions in the work of some enterprises of the iron and steel industry of Ukraine. Since July, production and exports began to resume.

In particular, in August, Ukrainian steelmakers increased steel production by 0.2% compared to July – up to 602 thousand tons. In January-August, 4.03 million tons of steel were produced (-22.3% y/y).

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, exports of semi-finished products fell by 70.9% year-on-year over the past 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%).