According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2024-2025/Q2 2024 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total EU exports of steel products to third countries declined by one percent year on year in the fourth quarter of 2023. In the given period, EU exports of finished products remained unchanged, while exports of long and flat products moved up by 15.0 percent and fell by seven percent, respectively, all year on year.
In the full year, exports of finished products decreased by two percent, due to a seven percent decline in flat product exports despite a 10 percent increase in exports of long products.
In the first two months of this year, the EU’s total steel exports dropped by two percent year on year. In the given period, the region’s exports of finished products moved up by nine percent, while exports of both flat and long products increased by nine percent, all year on year.
EUROFER said that the UK, Turkey, the US, Switzerland, Egypt, the UAE, China, Ukraine and Norway were the largest destinations for EU steel exports in the January-February period this year. The first five countries together accounted for 56 percent of total EU finished product exports in the given period.
In the given period, exports of finished products to the UAE rose by 252.0 percent, while finished product exports to Ukraine increased by 56.0 percent, due to improved trade functioning despite war-related disruptions. In the first two months of 2024, the EU’s exports of finished products to Egypt, the UK, Turkey, India, China and Norway rose by 24.0 percent, 22.0 percent, seven percent, 17.0 percent, 17.0 percent and 18.0 percent, respectively, while exports to the US and Switzerland were down by four percent and five percent, respectively, all year on year.
According to the EUROFER report, in the January-February period this year, flat product exports accounted for 72.0 percent of finished product exports.