Ukrainian steelmakers ramped up production of rolled products by 1.2% in 2020

Production of steel fell over the year, whereas production of pig iron on the contrary increased

In 2020, Ukraine’s steelmaking companies ramped up production of rolled products by 1.2% to 18.43 million tons against 2019, according to the updated statistics of Ukrmetallurgprom.

Specifically, Ukrainian steelmakers produced in 2020:

• sinter ore — 31.91 million tons (3.3% up from 2019),
• coke — 9.7 million tons (-3.9%),
• pig iron — 20.42 million tons (+1.8%),
• steel — 20.62 million tons (-1.1%),
• pipes — 85 thousand tons (-16.2%).

Production of rolled products in December increased by 36.8% to 1.71 million tons against December 2019.

In December, Ukrainian companies produced:

• sinter ore — 2.92 million tons (+18.7% against December 2019),
• coke — 0.85 million tons (+10.4%),
• pig iron — 1.83 million tons (+52.5%),
• steel — 1.91 million tons (+22.4%),
• pipes — 60 thousand tons (+71.4%).

“The December result of over 1.8 million tons of steel to some extent reflects the maximum capacity of domestic companies at the moment: repairs are completed, and prices are more than favorable. The maintenance of the average December load throughout 2021 will mean steel production at the level of 21.6 million tons. This is 5% up from the previous year,” GMK Center analysts said in a commentary on December production results in Ukraine.

As of 15 January 2021, the main operating production facilities included 17 out of 21 blast furnaces, 7 out of 8 open-hearth furnaces, 12 out of 16 BOFs, 4 out of 15 electric-arc furnaces and 16 out of 17 continuous casting machines.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2019, companies of Ukraine’s mining & metals sector decreased steel production by 1.2% to 20.85 million tons, pig iron by 2% to 20.6 million tons, and rolled products by 0.9% to 18.2 million tons against 2018.