In the January-June period this year, Ukraine’s total steel production amounted to 2.94 million mt, compared to 3.07 million mt in the same period of 2025, according to the data released by the Ukrainian Steel Association Ukrmetallurgprom. About 1.81 million mt or 61.6 percent of total steel production was exported, while 1.13 million mt or 38.4 percent was consumed by the domestic market. In the January-June period of 2025, 1.85 million mt or 60.2 percent of total steel production was shipped overseas, with domestic sales amounting to 1.22 million mt or 39.8 percent of total steel production. As a result, total steel exports fell by two percent, while total domestic steel sales decreased by 7.3 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In the given period, flat steel exports dropped by 8.1 percent to 795,000 mt, while semi-finished steel exports amounted to 776,000 mt, up by 35.9 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the January-June period, long steel exports came to 242,000 mt, moving down by 41.3 percent from the same period of last year.
The share of semi-finished products in exports in the first six months was 42.85 percent, which is significantly higher than the 30.90 percent recorded in the same period of 2025, while the share of flat steel products in exports came to 43.90 percent, slightly decreasing from 46.81 percent recorded in the same period of the previous year. Additionally, the share of long products dropped to 13.35 percent from 22.29 percent recorded in the January-June period of 2025.
Meanwhile, in the same period, domestic steel consumption increased by 3.6 percent year on year to 2.01 million mt, of which 880,300 mt or 43.81 percent was accounted for by imports. However, in the January-June period of 2025, domestic steel consumption was 1.94 million mt, of which 716,700 mt or 36.97 percent was met through imports.
In the January-June period, Ukraine’s total steel imports came to 880,300 mt, up by 22.8 percent year on year. In particular, Ukraine imported 566,700 mt of flat steel, falling by 2.4 percent year on year, while its long steel imports grew by 64.3 percent compared to the previous year to 246,400 mt. The country’s semi-finished steel imports in the first six months amounted to 67,200 mt, compared to 13,700 mt recorded in the given period of 2025.
In the meantime, the share of flat steel products in imports in the same period was 64.38 percent, compared to 77.30 percent recorded in the January-June period of 2025, while the share of long steel products rose to 27.99 percent, from 20.96 percent recorded in the same period of the previous year.
The main export markets for Ukraine in the January-June period of 2026 were the EU-27 (80.0%), other European countries (10.6%) and the CIS (7.0%), while the main import suppliers to Ukraine were other European countries (48.5%), Asia (25.8%) and the EU-27 (16.4%).