Ukrainian steelmakers increased the pig iron export by 39% m/m in September 2022

In September 2022, Ukrainian steel companies increased the export of pig iron by 39.5% compared to the previous month – up to 199.7 thousand tons. In monetary terms, pig iron deliveries abroad during this period decreased by 15% m/m – to $74.96 million. This is evidenced by the State Customs Service’s data.

In September 2022, year-on-year exports of pig iron fell by 25.5% in real terms and by 45.9% in monetary terms.

In January-September 2022, Ukraine exported 1.08 million tons of pig iron. This is 55.9% less compared to the same period in 2021. The steelmakers’ revenue from exports amounted to $550.5 million, which is 56.5% less than in January-September 2021.

The main consumer of Ukrainian pig iron in January-September 2022 was the USA (41.75%). The share of Poland in the total volume of pig iron exports was 34.1%. Turkiye is in the third place – 8.7%. Before the war, the USA has consumed more than half of the pig iron exported from Ukraine.

In January-September 2022, steel enterprises of Ukraine reduced pig iron production by 66.1% compared to the same period last year – to 5.46 million tons. In September 2022, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 310 thousand tons of pig iron.

Production of iron and steel products in September 2022 decreased, in particular, due to the deterioration of the situation on the global market. Rising prices due to disruptions in supply chains allowed domestic exporters to partially offset losses from increased costs due to the war, but prices are now low due to a lack of demand.

The problem of the increase in the cost of production, as well as the logistics of production, has also become acute. In this regard, companies began to massively announce load reductions or shutdowns due to accumulated problems that the authorities are in no hurry to solve together with business.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2021, pig iron exports from Ukraine increased by 4% compared to 2020 – up to 3.24 million tons. In monetary terms, pig iron deliveries abroad in 2021 increased by 78.1% y/y – up to $1.64 billion.

In 2021, Ukraine sold more than half of its pig iron to the USA (53.6%). In 2021, Italy was in second place by the volume of Ukrainian pig iron supplies (22.1%), and Turkiye was in the third place (9.7%).