According to the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (UAVtormet), the volume of Ukrainian scrap in April fell by 18.7% compared to the previous month to 136.6 thousand tonnes. Compared to April 2023, the decrease was 5.1%.
Scrap metal deliveries to Ukrainian steel mills also decreased by 26.7% m-o-m in April, but increased by 19.3% y-o-y to 101.5 thousand tonnes.
The country's steel production increased by 17% m-o-m and 24.6% y-o-y in April, leading to record highs in scrap exports, while the domestic market faced a shortage of raw materials due to reduced supplies, including the suspension of deliveries from Ukrzaliznytsia JSC from September 2023.
In January-April 2024, scrap metal supplies in Ukraine amounted to 563.4 thousand tonnes, up 53.7% compared to the same period in 2023. In four months, the supply of raw materials to Ukrainian metallurgists increased by 52.3% y-o-y to 446,000 tonnes, scrap exports increased by 55% y-o-y to 87,400 tonnes and imports by 0.34,000 tonnes.
Thus, 15.5% of scrap collected in Ukraine was exported, with monthly shipments exceeding 20,000 tonnes for the third consecutive month.
Scrap metal exports reached 26.1 thousand tonnes in April, up 24.9% compared to the previous month and 62.1% compared to April last year. The fact that this export growth was realised without paying taxes to the state budget raises some concerns for Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises.
UAVtormet estimates that in 2024, 250-300 thousand tonnes of scrap will be exported from Ukraine, with collection rates of 1.75-1.85 million tonnes.
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