According to the data released by metal trading enterprise Ukrainian Mining and Metallurgical Company (UGMK), in the first month of 2010 Ukraine's imports of steel products amounted to 80,600 mt, indicating an increase of 32.3 percent month on month, and a rise of more than five times year on year.
Accordingly, in January 2010 the biggest share in overall steel imports to Ukraine was held by HRC (33.1 percent), followed by tubular billet (23.9 percent), rounds (11.5 percent), and galvanized steel (10.5 percent).
UGMK considers that the sharp increase of HRC imports in January due to active acquisition of HRC by pipe-making and wagon-building companies, the deliveries to which companies accounted for almost 88 percent of total HRC imports. The main suppliers of HRC to Ukraine were the Russian steel producers MMK and Severstal, which supplied 84.7 and 10.2 percent respectively of Ukraine's total HRC imports.
Meanwhile, rebar accounted for a 2.6 percent share of Ukraine's total volume of steel imports in January. Rebar imports decreased by 65.8 percent compared to December 2009, due to the decrease in construction activity during the winter period, as well as due to the parity of domestic and import prices. About two-thirds of all imported rebar were supplied by Russian steelmaker Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, a subsidiary of Russian mining and steel producing group Mechel.
In January 2010, imports of steel products in Ukraine were as follows:
Product | January 2009 (mt) | January 2010 (mt) | Change (mt) | Change (%) |
6, 027 | 2,060 | -3,967 | -65.8 | |
Beam | 109 | 542 | +433 | +395.3 |
336 | 1,743 | +1,408 | +419.4 | |
Rounds | 1,640 | 9,276 | +7,635 | +465.5 |
1,207 | 26,711 | +25,504 | +2113.8 | |
Galvanized steel | 1,185 | 8,468 | +7,283 | +614.6 |
2,051 | 4,577 | +2,526 | +123.2 | |
Pipes | 1,931 | 3,148 | +1,217 | +63.1 |
Angle | 179 | 43 | -136 | -75.9 |
Channel | 8 | 76 | +69 | +885.8 |
Tubular billet | 1,321 | 19,291 | +17,970 | +1360.6 |
Other | 32 | 4,708 | +4,676 | +14531.2 |
Total | 16,026 | 80,644 | +64,618 | +403.2 |
In January 2010, Ukraine's main importers of steel were the pipe sector, which increased its share of overall steel imports into the country to 44.3 percent, from 40 percent for the whole of 2009, while the machine building sector saw its share of overall imports rising to 20.8 percent, compared to 17.2 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, the local metal trade sector has seen an increase in its share of steel imports to 14.6 percent, up from 0.6 percent in 2009, which may indicate the activation of direct contracts between producers and end consumers, UGMK notes.