In May this year, the Ukrainian steel industry saw output decline once again for all key products year on year, with the exception of iron ore agglomerate, amid the ongoing crisis in the national metallurgy industry aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic. Rising protectionism in the traditional export destinations for Ukraine, oversupply in the global steel market, weak prices and reduced steel demand in general continue to affect the Ukrainian steel industry, in particular. In addition, Ukrainian steel producers are hit by high tariffs, specifically for cargo freights, increased rent and restrictions on import of raw materials, particularly, diesel fuel.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in May this year Ukraine-based mills produced 1.638 million mt of crude steel, down 10.3 percent year on year, while the country’s output of pig iron in the given period amounted to 1.672 million mt, falling by only 0.2 percent year on year. Finished steel production in May decreased by 16.3 percent year on year to 1.458 million mt. The output of iron ore agglomerate, on the contrary, increased by 3.3 percent year on year to 2.698 million mt.
As a result, in the January-May period this year, Ukraine’s production of crude steel decreased by 10.5 percent year on year to 8.29 million mt, while its pig iron output fell by 6.5 percent to 8.16 million mt. In the given period, Ukraine-based mills produced 7.43 million mt of finished steel products, down 6.2 percent year on year. The output of iron ore agglomerate decreased by 1.4 percent year on year to 13.1 million mt in the January-May period this year.
As of June 16, Ukraine had 18 blast furnaces operational out of a total of 21. Additionally, 14 out of 16 oxygen converters, five out of 15 EAFs and 15 out of 16 continuous casting machines (CCM) were operational.