Aug 17, 2021
EUROFER: EU’s finished steel imports up two percent in Q1
2021-08-20
According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2021-2022/Q3 2021 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total EU imports of steel products from third countries increased by two percent year on year in the first quarter this year, after a drop of five percent in the fourth quarter last year. This was the first increase since the third quarter of 2019. In the second quarter this year, the EU’s steel imports surged by 44 percent year on year, amid the improvement in steel demand.
In the first quarter this year, the EU’s imports of flat products increased by one percent and imports of long products rose by four percent, while in the second quarter, flat product imports increased by 46 percent and long product imports rose by 34 percent, all year on year. The EU’s steel imports were volatile in early 2021, continuing a trend seen in 2019.
EUROFER said that Turkey, Russia, South Korea, India and Ukraine were the largest finished steel import sources for the EU market in the second quarter. These five countries accounted for 78 percent of total EU finished steel imports in the given period. Russia and Turkey were the largest import sources of finished products for the EU with a share of 18.9 percent each, followed by India with 17.9 percent, Ukraine with 7.9 percent and South Korea with 9.5 percent.
In the given period, imports of finished products from Russia and Turkey increased by 38 percent and seven percent, respectively, while imports from Ukraine increased by 106 percent, all year on year. Imports from South Korea fell by four percent year on year.
According to the EUROFER report, in the second quarter this year flat product imports accounted for 79 percent of finished product imports and long product imports accounted for the remaining 21 percent.
Source: Steel Orbis
