In the first eleven months of 2017, total EU exports of steel products to third countries increased by one percent year on year. In the same period, semi-finished steel exports almost doubled, whereas finished steel exports dropped by three percent, with a four percent increase in flat steel exports and a 15 percent decrease in long steel exports, all on year-on-year basis, according to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2018-2019/Q1 2018 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER).
As stated in the report by EUROFER, Turkey and North America were the main export destinations for EU flat and long product exports in the January-November period of 2017.
EU rebar producers have been able to book some tonnages from the volume opened up to exporters by Algeria’s Ministry of Commerce in the final months of 2017. This helped to soften the overall reduction in EU long product exports, but could not prevent rebar exports from falling by almost 50 percent year on year over the first eleven months of last year.
Finished steel product exports accounted for 92 percent of total EU steel exports over the first eleven months of 2017, with the remaining eight percent consisting of semi-finished products.