Steel production in Ukraine may continue to fall in the second half of the year

According to the Ukrainian Association Metallurgprom, steel production in Ukraine is expected to reach 1.9 million tons in October this year. At the same time, Ukraine plans to produce 1.9 million tons of pig iron and 1.8 million tons of general rolled steel. However, in September Ukraine's targets are 1.9 million tonnes of pig iron, 2 million tonnes of crude steel and 1.8 million tonnes of rolled steel. Demand on the Ukrainian steel market is expected to remain weak in the second half of this year.

Over the past 8 months of 2015, Ukrainian metallurgists reduced steel production by 24 percent to 15.037 million tons compared to the corresponding period last year. At the same time, the production of general rolled products in January-August also fell by 24 percent against an annualized comparison to 13.202 million tons. Pig iron production for the reporting period decreased by 23 percent to 13.964 million tons. Pipe production for 8 months fell by 44 percent to 568 thousand tons, coke output decreased by 30 percent to 7.347 million tons.

During August, 1.919 million tons of steel and 1.927 million tons of pig iron were smelted, 1.720 million tons of general rolled products and 72.1 thousand tons of pipes were produced. The production of the spit amounted to 1.065 million tons of coke. At the same time, in July these figures were lower. In August, for the first time in 2015, the production of iron and steel by metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine increased by 21.6 and 8.8 percent compared to the same period in 2014, respectively.

The increase in indicators occurred against the background of stabilization of the situation in the region. However, the largest railway junctions still remain destroyed. At present, the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant and the Donetsk Electrometallurgical Plant are inactive. As a result, in 2014, the output of pig iron in Ukraine decreased by 15 percent to 24.810 million tons, steel - by 17 percent to 27.161 million tons, rolled products - by 18 percent to 23.793 million tons, pipes - by 14 percent to 1.396 million tons, coke - by 21 percent to 13.824 million tons compared to 2013.