According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2024-2025/Q4 2024 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), total exports of steel products of EU countries to foreign markets increased by six percent in the second quarter of 2024, after a small increase of one percent in the first quarter. Finished, flat and long product exports grew by four percent, six percent and one percent, respectively.
Over the first seven months of 2024, total exports rose by six percent, as well as exports of finished products with an increase of seven percent, as a result of an eight percent increase in flat products and a six percent increase in long products. During the same period, flat products accounted for 65.0 percent of finished product exports overall.
According to the information released by EUROFER, in the January-July period the main destinations for EU steel exports were the UK, the US, Turkey, Switzerland, China and Egypt. The first five destinations together accounted for 56.0 percent of total EU finished product exports. Among the major export destinations, the UAE’s finished product imports from the EU increased by 91.0 percent, while exports to Ukraine went down by 14.0 percent due to war-related disruptions. Destination countries which recorded year-on-year increases in finished steel exports from the EU were the US with 35.0 percent, China with 16.0 percent, Norway with seven percent, and the UK and Turkey with four percent each. Exports to Switzerland and Egypt declined by seven percent and 12.0 percent year on year, respectively.