Ukraine’s exports of pig iron almost doubled in August

In August 2020, Ukrainian mining & metals companies increased exports of pig iron by 43.7% to 247.9 thousand tons against August last year. In monetary terms, pig iron exports grew by 29.1% to $70.3 million, according to the customs statistics.

In January–August, revenue of Ukrainian steelmaking companies from exports of pig iron grew by 14.6% to $582 million against the same period of 2019.

In January–August, Ukrainian steelmakers exported 2.05 million tons of pig iron. This is 30.7% up from January–August last year.

The main export market for Ukraine’s pig iron is the U.S. (57.47%). The share of China in the total exports of Ukrainian pig iron in January–August was 22.87%. Turkey ranked third, 7.03%.

It has to be noted that in the first half of August, a hike in prices for steelmaking pig iron was recorded in all regional markets. The reasons were growing scrap quotations and an increase in demand for flat products.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2019, Ukraine’s exports of pig iron declined by 23.8% to $801.9 million compared to the previous year. Pig iron exports dropped by 14.2% in physical terms to 2.6 million tons.

In 2019, Ukraine sold more than a half of its pig iron to the U.S. (58%). Italy ranked second in terms of imports from Ukraine (12.43%), followed by Turkey (10.27%).