According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2024-2025/Q3 2024 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total EU exports of steel products to third countries declined by one percent year on year in the first quarter of 2024. In the given period, EU exports of finished products increased by three percent, while exports of long and flat products moved up by five percent and by two percent, respectively, all year on year.
In the first four months of this year, the EU’s total steel exports dropped by one percent year on year. In the given period, the region’s exports of finished products moved up by three percent, while exports of both flat and long products increased by two percent and five percent, respectively, all year on year.
EUROFER said that the UK, the US, Turkey, Switzerland, Egypt, China, the UAE, Ukraine and Norway were the largest destinations for EU steel exports in the January-April period this year. The first five countries together accounted for 55 percent of total EU finished product exports in the given period.
In the given period, exports of finished products to the UAE rose by 241.0 percent, while finished product exports to Ukraine remained unchanged, despite improved trade functioning amid war-related disruptions. In the first four months of 2024, the EU’s exports of finished products to the US, China, India, Norway, the UK and Turkey rose by 21.0 percent, 13.0 percent, nine percent, five percent, one percent and one percent, respectively, while exports to Switzerland and Egypt were down by 10.0 percent and eight percent, respectively, all year on year.
According to the EUROFER report, in the January-April period this year, flat product exports accounted for 67.0 percent of finished product exports.