According to the official customs data, in January this year Russia’s steel exports decreased by 7.3 percent year on year to 2.198 million mt. The highest decline was registered in the flats segment, with a decrease of 24.7 percent year on year to 491,400 mt. In January, as SteelOrbis has learned, Russian steelmakers were in favor of giving higher priority to supplying flats to their domestic market rather than export them. In the given period, Russia’s semi-finished steel shipments dropped by 4.1 percent year on year to 1.252 million mt.
As for raw materials, in January Russia exported 216,200 mt of pig iron, up 3.4 percent year on year, while its ferroalloy exports decreased by 11.6 percent year on year to 66,200 mt.