According to the data released by the Russian Federation's Federal Customs Service, in the first eight months of 2007 Russia exported 18.28 million metric tons of ferrous metals (excluding pig iron, ferroalloys and scrap) - up 4.7 percent, 3.62 million metric tons of pig iron - up 6.15 percent, 490,900 metric tons of ferroalloys - up 11.36 percent, 9.9 million metric tons of semi-finished steel products - up 13.3 percent, 5.2 million metric tons of flat rolled products - down 8.8 percent, 14.96 million metric tons of iron ore and concentrate - up 6.5 percent, and 2.25 million metric tons of coke and semi-coke - up 2.6-fold, all compared to the first eight months of 2006.
During the period in question, Russia increased its ferrous metal imports (excluding pig iron, ferroalloys and scrap) by 168 percent and its steel pipe imports by 134 percent year on year, to 4.3 million metric tons and 1.1 million metric tons respectively.