According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2019-2020/Q1 2019 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total steel imports including semi-finished products from third countries into the EU in the first 11 months of 2018 rose by five percent year on year. According to the surveillance data for December, finished product imports rose by 12 percent over the whole year of 2018, due to a 33 percent year-on-year increase in long product imports and a six percent rise in flat product imports.
EUROFER said that the EU’s import volumes were slightly lower in the second half compared with volumes in the first half of 2018 when third country exporters were pushing extra volumes to the EU market in anticipation of safeguard measures to be announced by the European Commission.
In the January-November period of last year, imports from Turkey and Russia remained on a strongly rising trend. Imports from Turkey rose by 65 percent year on year, driven by a 57 percent increase in flat product imports and an 80 percent rise in long product imports. Imports from Russia rose by 53 percent year on year, owing to a 69 percent rise in flat products and a 29 percent increase in long product imports. Meanwhile, imports from China fell by 18 percent year on year and those from India by 26 percent year on year over this period, following sharp increases in imports in 2017.