Ukraine's largest long steel producer, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, sold almost 80% of its steel output to foreign outlets in 2018, the company said in a report published on Thursday February 7.
The company's steel product sales totaled 4.5 million tonnes in 2018, of which just 22% was sold domestically, the report showed.Of the total volume, around 2.9 million tonnes were long steel products, mainly rebar and wire rod, while 1.2 million tonnes comprised semi-finished steel products, and around 400,000 tonnes were pig iron."[The full year] 2018 was one of the most difficult years for the company," its deputy general director for marketing and sales, Anastasia Tatarulieva, said in the report."More and more countries closed their markets, new capacities were implemented and the pressure from cheap import material was mounting. Increasing steel import volumes from Belarus, Moldova and Turkey were significantly reducing the market share of local steelmakers...