Ukrainian steel mills reduced steel exports, increasing shipments to the domestic market
For two months of 2021, Ukrainian metallurgists have reduced the export of rolled metal by 170 thousand tons. According to data OP Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-February 2021 Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises produced 3.15 million tons of rolled metal (100.3% compared to January-February 2020), of which about 2.49 million tons, or 79.2 %.
In the same period last year, the share of exports amounted to 84.7% (2.66 million tons with a total production of 3.14 million tons of rolled metal).
The main export markets of Ukrainian metal products in January-February 2021, according to V.S.K. GROUP, are the countries of the European Union (29.9%), other European countries (23.5%) and the Middle East (9.9%).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries for two months of 2021 accounted for 48.84%, which is slightly lower than the indicator for the same period in 2020 (50.34%). The share of flat products in export deliveries in January-February 2021 is noticeably higher than in January-February 2020 (35.97% and 30.55%, respectively). The share of long products in export deliveries in January-February 2021 is noticeably inferior to the indicator for the same period in 2020 (15.20% in 2021 versus 19.11% in 2020).
The capacity of the domestic rolled metal market increased by 18.7% in January-February 2021, the share of the import component decreased by almost 11 percentage points. So, in January-February 2021, the capacity of the domestic market amounted to 766.0 thousand tons of rolled metal, of which 110.0 thousand tons, or 14.4% were imports.
Last year, in January-February 2020, the capacity of the domestic market was 645.3 thousand tons, of which 163.3 thousand tons, or 25.3%, were imported.