US reduced imports of pig iron from Ukraine by 19% y/y in January-April

In January-April 2024, US steel enterprises reduced pig iron imports from Ukraine by 19.2% compared to the same period in 2023, to 338.85 thousand tons. This is evidenced by UN.Comtrade data.

In April, US imports of pig iron from Ukraine decreased by 47.2% compared to April 2023, and by 38.6% compared to the previous month – to 50.04 thousand tons. In general, since the beginning of the year, there has been a slowdown in the supply of Ukrainian products to the US market after reaching the highest monthly figure since September 2021 in January 2024 – 175.87 thousand tons.

In general, in January-April this year, the United States reduced imports of pig iron by 29.9% compared to the same period in 2023, to 1.68 million tons. Thus, the share of Ukrainian products in the total volume of pig iron imports by US steelmakers is over 20%. In April, imports decreased by 20.4% y/y and 13.5% m/m – to 296.34 thousand tons.

Ukraine exported 417.94 thousand tons of pig iron in the first 4 months of 2024, down 21.7% y/y. Thus, more than 80% of the products were shipped to American consumers, which is the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Another 20% of products were shipped to the EU. In particular, in January-April, exports of Ukrainian pig iron to European steel mills reached 79.29 thousand tons, down 19.7% y/y.

The decline in pig iron exports from Ukraine to major global consumers is the result of increased production and exports of steel and rolled products by domestic steelmakers, as value-added products are a higher priority.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, the United States increased imports of pig iron from Ukraine by 91.7% compared to 2022, up to 1.05 million tons. At the same time, US imports of pig iron from Ukraine decreased by 37.3% compared to pre-war 2021.

Last year, pig iron exports from Ukraine decreased by 5.8% compared to 2022, to 1.25 million tons. Compared to the pre-war year of 2021, pig iron shipments abroad decreased by 61.4%, or 1.99 million tons.