Ukraine increased the import of long-rolled products by 34% m/m in February

In February 2023, Ukraine increased the import of long rolled steel by 34% compared to January 2023 – up to 10.31 thousand tons. Import costs for the month decreased by 50.9% m/m – to $4.61 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

Compared to February 2022, in February 2023 Ukraine reduced the costs of importing long-rolled goods by 79.5%. It is impossible to calculate the difference in the volume of imports in natural volume due to the lack of data.

In January-February 2023, Ukraine consumed 18,000 tons of imported long steel for $14.02 million. The costs of importing foreign products decreased by 67.7% compared to the same period last year.

In January-February 2023, Ukraine imported the most other twisted wire rods and bars without further processing (Nomenclature – 7214) – 6.45 thousand tons for $7.79 million. In February, 1.44 thousand tons (+291%) were delivered m/m) for $3.67 million (-63.9% m/m). Also, 4.41 thousand tons of other wire rods and bars made of alloy steels, hollow wire rods and bars for drilling made of alloyed or non-alloyed steels were imported (Nomenclature – 7228) for $2.53 million, in February – 3.26 thousand tons (+183% m/m) for $0.6 million (-65.3% m/m).

Carbon steel wire (Nomenclature – 7217) ranked third in terms of the volume of deliveries to Ukraine among the types of long rolled products in January-February of this year – 1.98 thousand tons for $0.99 million. In February, deliveries of such products to Ukraine increased by 281% compared to the previous month – up to 1.57 thousand tons, and in monetary terms – decreased by 80.7% m/m – to $0.16 million.

The largest suppliers of other twisted wire rods and bars without further processing are Turkiye and Bulgaria – 78.33% and 14.43%, respectively, in monetary terms. Germany (71.57%) and Turkiye (8.59%) shipped about 80% of other bars and wire rods of alloy steels, hollow wire rods and drill bars of alloy or non-alloy steels. The main suppliers of wire rods are Spain and China – 40.17% and 13.04%.

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several steel enterprises remained in the temporarily occupied territory, including the largest steel plants Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works. Enterprises located in the territory under control are operating at minimum capacity due to problems with logistics, the unfavorable situation on the global steel markets, and interruptions in energy supply due to the shelling of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure by Russian forces, but now the situation has stabilized.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 Ukraine reduced the import of long rolled metal by 70.5% compared to 2021 – to 96.06 thousand tons. Import costs for the year decreased by 60.6% y/y – to $113.65 million.

Export of long rolled steel from Ukraine in 2022 amounted to 748.95 thousand tons, which is 59.7% less than in 2021. In monetary terms, deliveries of such products fell by 54.3% m/m – to $23.84 million.