Ukrainian enterprises in January-June this year increased their consumption of rolled steel by 11.65% year-on-year to 1 million 938.7 thousand tonnes.
According to a press release of the Ukrmetallurgprom association on Friday, 716.7 thousand tonnes, or 36.97% of the domestic market of rolled metal consumption, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in the first six months of 2025, metal enterprises produced 3.070 million tonnes of rolled metal products (97.8% relative to the same period in 2024), of which, according to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, about 1.848 million tonnes, or 60.2%, were exported. In January-June 2024, the share of exports was 63.6% (1.996 million tonnes with total rolled metal production of 3.140 million tonnes).
The share of semi-finished products in export shipments in January-June 2025 is 30.90%, which is significantly lower than in January-June 2024 (45.39%). The share of flat products in export shipments in January-June 2025 is significantly higher than in January-June 2024 (46.81% and 41.73%, respectively). The share of long products is also significantly higher than in January-May 2024 (22.29% in 2025 against 12.88% in 2024).
The import structure in Jan-June 2025 continues to be characterised by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (77.31% and 20.96% respectively); in Jan-June 2024, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant (80.06% and 18.30% respectively).
“In the first six months of 2025, the domestic market capacity was 1,938.7 thousand tonnes of rolled steel products, of which 716.7 thousand tonnes or 36.97% is accounted for by imports. In January-June 2024, the capacity of the domestic market was 1736.4 thousand tonnes, of which 592.4 thousand tonnes or 34.12% was imported. Thus, in January-June 2025 there is an increase in the capacity of the domestic market relative to January-June 2024 by 11.65%, with a simultaneous increase in the share of the import component by 2.85%”, – stated in the press release.
The main export markets for Ukrainian rolled steel products in the first six months of 2025, according to the State Customs Service, are the countries of the European Union (83.1%), other Europe (7.5%) and the CIS (6.7%).
Among metallurgical importers in January-May 2025, the first place is occupied by other European countries (57.4 per cent), the second by the EU-27 (23.3 per cent) and the third by Asian countries (18.7 per cent).
As reported, Ukraine’s rolled metal market in 2024 decreased by 6.26% year-on-year to 3 million 288.4 thousand tonnes, while in 2023 it increased by 2.19 times compared to 2022 to 3 million 505.6 thousand tonnes.