Ukraine reports ‘thin’ scrap trade volumes in H1 2015

MOSCOW (Scrap Monster): The steel production by Ukraine dropped considerably, thanks to the ongoing political instability in the region. More importantly, imports and exports of scrap metals declined during the first half of the current year.

The steel production by Ukraine dropped to 27 million tonnes last year, almost 15% lower when compared with the average yearly production of 32 million tonnes per year.

During the initial six-month period of the year, Ukraine’s ferrous metal exports plunged heavily by 41% over the previous year. As per latest statistics released by the State Fiscal Services of Ukraine, exports during January to June this year amounted to $4.296 billion. It must be noted that the country had exported $7.281 billion worth of ferrous metals during the corresponding six-month period in 2014. Also, ferrous metal imports by Ukraine dropped sharply by 51% year-on-year.

The country’s imports and exports of non-ferrous metals too dropped significantly during this period. For instance, aluminum imports were down by 30.6% year-on-year to $124.48 million during Jan-Jun ’15. Meantime, aluminum exports were down nearly 7% to $59.42 million.

The Federation of Metal Manufacturers of Ukraine has requested the government to revise the ferrous scrap export limits during the second half of the year. In a letter addressed to the Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, the federation noted that Ukranian market currently faces acute shortage of scrap metals and that a revision of scrap export restrictions would make a big change to the present situation.