Global steel product exports rise 6.4% in 2023: worldsteel

Global steel product exports, including ingots, semi-finished products, hot-rolled and cold-finished products, tubes, wire, and unworked castings and forgings, totaled 402.8 million mt in 2023, up 6.4% year on year, according to the World Steel Association's latest World Steel in Figures 2024 publication released June 6.

The most exported steel product in 2023 was hot-rolled sheets and coils at 75.6 million mt, rising 11.2% on the year, followed by 53.2 million mt of ingots and semi-finished material, up 19.3%.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed domestic HRC prices in Northern Europe at Eur630/mt ex-works Ruhr on June 6, down 8.7% since the start of 2024.

Globally, 41 million mt of galvanized sheets were exported in 2023, up 6.8% from 2022, followed by 36.5 million mt of steel tubes and fittings, rising 6.7%, 35.2 million mt of plates, up 9.3%, and 30.3 million mt of cold-rolled sheets and coils, down 1.6% on the year.

Global crude steel production in 2023 was 1.89 billion mt, up 0.1% on the year. Of the total, 71.1% was produced using blast oxygen furnaces and 28.6% using electric arc furnaces, according to the worldsteel data.

The top exporting country in 2023 was China at 94.3 million mt, which was also the top crude steel producer at 1 billion mt.

This was followed by Japan, which exported 32.2 million mt in 2023, South Korea at 27 million mt, the European Union at 26 million mt and Germany at 22.5 million mt.

Meanwhile, the top five importers in 2023 were the EU at 39.2 million mt, the US at 26.4 million mt, Germany and Italy both at 18.7 million mt and Turkey at 18 million mt.

Worldsteel noted that the EU export and import volumes excluded intra-regional trade, while the German and Italian volume included intra-European trade.

Ferrous scrap exports up 0.2% on year

Meanwhile, 99.1 million mt of ferrous scrap was exported in 2023, edging up 0.2% from 2022, according to worldsteel.

The US was by far the largest scrap exporting country in 2023 at 16.3 million mt, followed by Germany at 7.5 million mt, the UK at 6.9 million mt, the Netherlands at 7.1 million mt and Japan at 6.9 million mt.

The EU was the largest exporting region of scrap in 2023 at 44.7 million mt, rising 2.8% on the year.

The largest ferrous scrap importer in 2023 was Turkey at 18.8 million mt, followed by Italy at 5.8 million mt, the US at 5.1 million mt and Belgium at 4 million mt.

Asia was the largest ferrous scrap importing region in the world at 33.3 million mt, up 7.1% from 2022, followed by the EU at 30 million mt, down 5.7%.

Global pig iron exports in 2023 totaled 12.1 million mt, while imports were 11.9 million mt, the data showed.