According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2018-2019/Q2 2018 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total steel imports from third countries into the EU in 2017 fell slightly by 1.8 percent compared to 2016. However, following a downward trend in steel imports from June to August, imports resumed a rising tendency from September to December 2017.
EUROFER stated that in the first quarter of the current year the EU’s finished steel imports rose by eight percent year on year. This figure represents a two percent year-on-year drop in flat product imports and a massive 49 percent increase in long product imports.
According to the EUROFER report, customs data for steel imports in the first quarter of this year show that the rising trend in imports over the September-December 2017 period continued into the first quarter of 2018. In the given quarter, the EU’s finished steel imports from Russia rose by 138 percent, from Iran by 84 percent, from Turkey by 75 percent, from the US by 32 percent and from Taiwan by 25 percent, all on year-on-year basis.