In February scrap procurement totaled 181 thousand tons, with local market shortage at 53 thousand tons, or 23% of the needs (234 thousand tons).
In January-February Ukraine procured 344 thousand tons of scrap, down by 43% YoY and be 53% to January-February 2014. Taking these figures into account, the annual procurement could end up on the level of 2.6-2.9 million tons, and not 3.6-3.9 million tons as was believed in January.
The Ministry of economical development and trade allowed scrap exports on the level of 1.1 million tons in 2016. With such low procurement this can ruin the local market. Metal companies would have to use liquid pig iron or increase imports of hot-briquetted iron from Russia, drastically increasing prime cost. (Ukrainian Metal)