According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2017-2018/Q3 2017 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total steel imports, including semis, from third countries into the EU rose by four percent year on year in the first four months of the current year, while imports in May totaled around 2.65 million mt, the highest monthly level since October 2007.
EUROFER stated that, as far as the main countries of origin are concerned, Russia and Ukraine were the largest exporters of steel products, predominantly semi-finished steel products, to the EU in the first five months of this year, although the volumes in question decreased compared with the same period last year. China still leads in terms of finished steel exports, but the gap with other third country suppliers has narrowed significantly. India, Turkey and South Korea closely follow China in the ranking list of exporters due to a 34 percent drop in Chinese exports to the EU over this period. In the January-May period of this year, steel exports from India to the EU grew by 260 percent, while exports from Turkey increased by 128 percent and exports from South Korea rose by 20 percent, all on year-on-year basis. These trends are closely correlated to the duties imposed on exports of certain products from various countries and ongoing investigations on other products. Other exporters swiftly entered the EU market to offer significant volumes of the affected products.
The EUROFER report concluded that import pressure remained high in the first five months of this year, confirming earlier concerns of continued market distortions.