Ukrainian steel plants receive higher scrap tonnages

Steel plants in Ukraine were supplied with more scrap tonnages in December compared with the previous month, according to data from the Ukrainian association of secondary metals, UAVtormet.

The volume amounted to 288,600 tonnes, up by 33.1% on-year, Kallanish notes. However, January-December supplies fell by -3.9% on-year to 2.9 million tonnes.

The largest consumers in December were Metinvest and Dnieper Metallurgical Plant (DMK) each with 175,000t, Interpipe with 52,000t, and ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih with 20,500t.

Reserves of scrap at steel plants at the end of last month amounted to 170,175t, UAVtormet says.

“In the current conditions, metallurgists in Ukraine do not experience problems with scrap metal,” the association observes.

In 2019 Ukrainian imports of scrap exceeded exports for the first time, when exports shrunk eight-fold to 42,182t, and imports increased by 17.2% on-year to 49,934t (see Kallanish passim).

Ukrainian steelmakers took in around 3.1 million tonnes of ferrous scrap in 2019, -20% less than in 2018, despite a €58/tonne ($65/t) scrap export duty.