Ukraine’s steelmakers reduced the export of semi-finished products by 33% m/m in June

In June 2023, Ukrainian steel enterprises reduced the export of semi-finished products by 33.1% compared to the previous month – to 101.51 thousand tons. The income of producers from exports for the month fell by 38% m/m – to $53.77 million. This is evidenced by State Customs Service’s data.

Compared to June 2022, in June 2023, the steel enterprises of Ukraine reduced the volume of exports of semi-finished products by 44%, and revenue – by 56.8%.

In January-June 2023, Ukraine exported 549.5 thousand tons of semi-finished products worth $298.71 million. Export volumes of slabs and billets decreased by 61.5% compared to the same period in 2022, and revenue from shipments – by 66.8%.

The main importers of semi-finished products from Ukraine in January-June 2023 were Poland (35.46% of deliveries in monetary terms), Bulgaria (29.78%) and Italy (7.54%).

Since the beginning of 2023, the export of semi-finished products from Ukraine gradually recovered and grew in monthly dynamics, in particular, in February the indicator in natural terms increased by 80.6% m/m, in March – by 25.5% m/m, in April – by 24% m/m, and in May – by 54.8% m/m.

This trend reflected the increase in steel production by Ukrainian steelmakers. In June, exports fell amid reduction in capacity due to the undermining of the Kakhovska HPP by Russian troops. This caused the suspension of steel and rolled steel production at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and disruptions in the work of some steel enterprises of Ukraine.

In particular, in June, Ukrainian steelmakers reduced steel production by 25% compared to May and increased by 48.6% y/y. In January-June, 2.83 million tons of steel were produced (-38% y/y).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, export of semi-finished products from Ukraine decreased by 72% compared to 2021 – to 1.89 million tons. In monetary terms, the export of semi-finished products fell by 70.9% y/y last year – to $1.19 billion. The main importers of Ukrainian semi-finished products in 2022 were Bulgaria (25.55%), Poland (13.97%) and Italy (12.13%).