Ukrainian enterprises in January-May of this year increased the export of ferrous metal scrap by 3.1 times compared to the same period last year - up to 77.452 thousand tons. According to statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, in monetary terms, the export of scrap metal for the specified period amounted to 23.028 million dollars.
Scrap metal was exported in January-May 2023 to Poland (89.55%), Greece (7 .51%) and the Netherlands (0.99%).
Earlier, Oleksandr Kalenkov, the president of the industry association of steel producers in Ukraine Ukrmetallurgprom, argued that scrap metal is exported through the European Union, where there is a preferential export duty of EUR3 per ton, and from there strategic raw materials are redirected to real customers.
According to him, the State Bureau of Investigation has already become interested in such export schemes.
The head of Ukrmetallurgprom called for a temporary ban on the export of ferrous scrap metals to provide metallurgical enterprises with strategically important raw materials in the context of the ongoing war.
“If scrap metal remains in the country, more than 500 thousand people will have jobs, and the country will have millions of foreign exchange earnings from steel exports. At the same time, the military will also benefit, because metallurgists help the fighters a lot, buying equipment and cars for them, and even releasing bulletproof vests. No one will benefit from the export of scrap metal. Therefore, now the authorities must act proactively and temporarily ban exports until the situation stabilizes and ceases to threaten national economic security,” Kalenkov believes.
He specified that a ton of scrap metal processed into steel contributes to the budget 10 times more than the export duty in the EU - about 300 dollars per ton.
As reported, Ukraine in 2022 reduced the export of ferrous metal scrap by 11.5 times compared to the previous year - to 53.557 thousand .tons, in monetary terms, it decreased by 12.4 times - up to 19.271 million dollars.
