Results of metallurgical production in Ukraine for the first half of the year

During the first half of 2018, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises produced 9.25 million tons of rolled metal, which is 5% higher compared to the same period in 2017, of which 7.82 million tons were exported, which is 84.6%. This roughly corresponds to the same period in 2017, when the share of exports reached 84.1% (7.41 million tons with a total production of 8.80 million tons of rolled metal).

During the reporting period, the share of semi-finished products in export deliveries amounted to 44.9%, which is higher than in the period January-June 2017. The share of flat products remained comparable to the same period in 2017 (33.3% and 33.9%, respectively), while the volume of long products slightly decreased (21.8% and 24.9%, respectively).

In the first six months of 2018, domestic consumption amounted to 2,081.3 thousand tons of rolled metal, of which 653.3 thousand tons are imports, or 31.4%. For the same period in 2017, the domestic market consumed 1971.3 thousand tons, of which 575.3 thousand tons, or 29.2%, were imported. Thus, in the first half of 2018, the growth in consumption of rolled metal in the domestic market amounted to 5.6% compared to January-June 2017, while the import component increased by 13.6%.

The structure of imports for the first half of 2018 is characterized by almost parity between long and flat products (48.6% and 47.9%, respectively), in contrast to the same period in 2017, in which there was a significant superiority of flat products over long products (respectively, 60, 8% and 38.2%). First of all, this is explained by the compensation by import supplies of the lost volumes of long products in Ukrainian production.

The main export markets for Ukrainian metal products in this period remain the countries of the European Union (33.3%), Africa (15.8%), other European countries, including Turkey (14.6%) and the Middle East (11.6%).

The main metallurgical importers in the first half of 2018 are the CIS (58.3%), Asian countries (18.6%) and the EU-28 (17.5%).