Russia’s polymer coated steel imports reach record in July

In July this year, Russia saw a sharp increase in its polymer coated rolled steel product imports to 120,000 mt, reaching an absolute record for the post-Soviet era, mainly due to the pricing policy of domestic producers, which, according to the Russian Association of Metal and Steel Traders, is not balanced and needs correction.
 
Also, due to the delay in the commissioning of new production capacities, the growing demand for polymer coated steel is being satisfied mainly by imports. The share of Russian origin products in the domestic polymer coated rolled steel products market during the current year has declined substantially from 65 percent in January to 40 percent in June.
 
In June this year, the country's imports of polymer coated steel amounted to 115,000 mt, which is 56 percent more than in May and exceeds the traditional supply volume by three to four times.
 
In the first six months of 2010, Russia more than doubled year on year its imports of rolled steel with polymer coating to 347,000 mt. The record in Russia's overall imports of polymer coated steel is held by China, the share of which grew from 23 percent to 64 percent in the last three years.
 
The Russian Association of Metal and Steel Traders noted that in H1 2010 Russia's imports of coated rolled steel products exceeded the import volumes from 2009 and are well ahead of the record pace of imports in the year 2007-2008 (by about 60 percent).