Almost all Ukrainian iron and steel works are suffering from scrap shortage. According to Derzhzovnishinform, in April they received 150 thousand tons of scrap, or 97% of the needs.
Stocks haven’t changed much and total 35 thousand tons. In early May scrap prices were on the level of $269-271 per ton FOB.
Last year scrap deficiency reached 855 thousand tons, with 1.2 million tons being exported. Companies had to substitute scrap with liquid pig iron or hot-briquetted iron, which affected the price. Some companies even had to stop operation because of the lack of raw materials. For example, Interpipe’s works was idle for 63 days. (Ukrainian metal)
