Ukraine's domestic steel product consumption registered a 0.3% year-on-year rise over January-July to hit 2.31 million tonnes, according to data from industry association Ukrmetallurgprom.

Imports totaled 1.06 million tonnes in this seven-month window, making up 46.1% of total domestic demand. For comparison, the local market stood at 2.30 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, with imports contributing 862,700 tonnes, equivalent to a 37.5% market share. While overall domestic consumption saw almost no change year on year, import penetration climbed by 8.6 percentage points.

Flat-rolled goods maintained dominance over long products at 66.6% and 26.9% respectively, though this gap has narrowed notably from January-July 2025, when flat-rolled and long-product imports represented 74.8% and 20.2% of inbound volumes.

On the export side, the share of flat-rolled steel eased slightly to 43.7% in the first seven months from 44.6% a year earlier. Long-product export share posted a sharp drop, falling to 13.7% from 22.9% in January-July 2025. Meanwhile, semi-finished products took a much larger slice of exports at 42.6%, versus 32.6% one year prior.

The European Union remained Ukraine's top export destination for rolled steel, absorbing 81.9% of exports. Other European markets accounted for 9.6% and CIS nations for 6.5% of exports.

Ukrainian mills produced 3.32 million tonnes of rolled steel over the reporting period, down 8.3% versus the same stretch of 2025. Around 2.1 million tonnes, or 62.5% of total output, were shipped for export.

Ukraine's full-year 2025 steel-product consumption (rolled steel plus semi-finished items) advanced 21.7% year on year to 4 million tonnes. Imports into Ukraine reached 1.6 million tonnes last year, a 31.2% annual increase, and supplied 40.1% of domestic consumption. The import share within local steel demand rose by 2.49 pps year on year.