The volume of exports of scrap from Ukraine in August fell sharply

The August decline in prices for scrap metal on world markets led to the fact that the dynamics of export of raw materials from Ukraine in August for the first time since February of this year began to decline. The decrease in external supplies last month amounted to 27% – to 76 thousand tons. In July, exports amounted to 103.6 thousand tons, which was 22% higher than in June. In June, exports increased by 43% compared to May.

In total, in January- August of this year, the export of scrap in physical terms increased by almost 20 times – up to 410.5 thousand tons. In financial terms, this figure increased 29.5 times – up to $157.1 million.

The decline in export dynamics is associated with a decrease in world prices, which made external supplies of scrap less profitable. According to the State Enterprise "Ukrpromvneshexpertiza", in August the price of the basic type of scrap grade HMS 1&2 (80:20) in Turkey dropped by $20/mt – to $440- 450/mt. Scrap prices declined due to weak demand for rolled products and replacement of scrap metal by imported billets. Despite the presence of a fairly large number of downward factors, the decline was not deep due to the limiting factor of the high cost of iron ore and limited supply from US and European traders.

The positive dynamics of other indicators of the scrap collection industry for 8 months was as follows:

• scrap collection – by 44.8%, to 2.76 million tons;

• supplies of scrap metal – by 23.6%, to 2.22 million tons.

At the end of August, scrap collectors showed record figures since the beginning of the year for scrap collection (412.5 thousand tons) and deliveries to metallurgical plants (318.2 thousand tons).

In fact, now the industry has only one problem – metallurgists are aggressively initiating a complete ban on the export of scrap. The protective duty of €58 per ton seemed small and, having included the entire administrative and media resource, they are actively lobbying for a total ban. Discussion of this issue is already underway at the level of the Ministry of Economy.

Scrap export allows scrap collectors to earn exactly the same way as metallurgists do, taking advantage of the period of high prices on the market. For 8 months, the revenue of metal enterprises from the export of ferrous metals increased by 73% – up to $8.9 billion. years of stagnation is the only opportunity to invest in development.