Ukraine’s steel sector showed a weaker performance in the first nine months of this year, severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine’s metallurgy industry in general. However, during the last months of the period in question the rates of decline slowed down.
Accordingly, in the January-September period of the current year, Ukraine-based mills produced 15,33 million mt of crude steel, down 6.5 percent year on year, while the country’s output of pig iron in the given period amounted to 15.17 million mt, falling by two percent year on year, according to Ukrmetallurgprom. Meanwhile, finished steel production during the first nine months of this year decreased by 2.8 percent year on year to 13.71 million mt. The output of iron ore agglomerate in the given period remained almost unchanged, totaling 23.67 million mt. The output of steel pipes in the January-September period of the current year declined by 24.3 percent year on year to 620,000 mt.
As of October 15, Ukraine had 16 blast furnaces operational out of a total of 21. Additionally, 12 out of 16 oxygen converters, six out of 15 EAFs and 15 out of 17 continuous casting machines (CCM) were operational.