Russia's stainless steel seamless tube imports dropped during Q1 2014

MOSCOW (Scrap Monster): According to statistics released by SpetsStal, the Russian imports of stainless steel seamless tubes dropped significantly during the first quarter of the year. The volume of imports totaled 2,128 tons, 47.5% lower when compared with the imports during the corresponding quarter a year ago.

According to SpetsStal, the major imported product was cold-deformed seamless tubes, accounting for nearly 60% of the total seamless tube imports by the country during this period. The largest exporter of these products was Ukraine, accounting for nearly half of the country’s total imports. The other major exporters of cold-deformed seamless tubes to Russia were China, South Korea, India and Malaysia.

The percentage share of imports from Ukraine, China, South Korea and India went higher during Q1 this year, whereas the percentage share of Malaysia dropped significantly during the quarter. The percentage share of Ukraine was only 32.8% in Q1 2013 as against 48.7% in Q1 2014, whereas those of China were only 9.8% when compared with 25.4% share in Q1 2013. The percentage share of India and South Korea jumped significantly higher during Q1 this year. India recorded big jump from 0.1% to 7.2% whereas South Korea’s percentage share surged from 0.4% in Q1 2013 to 8.4% in Q1 2014.

The imports from China were down mainly on account of high anti-dumping duty of 19.15%.