Posted on 19 May 2022
The ASEAN-6 countries are mostly net importers for both semi-finished steel and finished steel products. Russia is one of the major sources of semi-finished steel as well as some of finished steel products, especially flat steel. Meanwhile, import from Ukraine was still low.
Billet import in the region dropped 12% y-o-y to nearly 2 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Major sources of import for carbon billet in the region were Oman, India, Russia and Bahrain. Import of billet from Russia was 10% of all imports.
Slab import in the region increased 30% y-o-y to nearly 3 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Major sources of carbon slab in the region were India, Oman, Russia and Japan. Import from Russia was 20% of the total. Meanwhile, import from Ukraine was as low as 40,000 tonnes.
Import of bloom, beam and blank was mainly from India and Oman. Import from Ukraine dropped significantly from nearly 300,000 tonnes (the second largest source in 2020) to above 50,000 tonnes in 2021.
Import of high carbon semi-finished steel in the region registered 1.7 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Russia was the largest source of import, 20% of total import from January to November 2021. Apart from Russia, ASEAN also import from Japan, Oman, India, Iran and Indonesia. Indonesia also appeared to be one of the major sources, at 110,200 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Import from Japan doubled in volume to above 300,000 tonnes.
Import of stainless/alloyed semi-finished steel increased 16% y-o-y to 100,623 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Major sources of import were Japan, Russia and India. Import from India jumped significantly, from 1,000 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2020 to 21,000 tonnes in the same period of 2021.
ASEAN’s bar import increased 10% y-o-y to 2.4 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Major sources of import were China, Japan and Turkey. The import of section and wire rod were also mainly from China. Import from Russia and Ukraine were minimum.
As for ASEAN’s import of plates, total volume dropped moderately in 2021 to 2.3 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Nearly half of the import was from China, followed by the import from Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. Import from Ukraine dropped significantly, from 92,059 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2020 to below 10,000 tonnes in the same period of 2021 whereas import from Russia increased 60% to 12,000 tonnes.
Overall import of hot rolled coil in the region increased 4% y-o-y to 13 million tonnes in the first half of 2021. Major sources of import were China, Japan, India, Taiwan and Intra-ASEAN. Import from Russia was only 3% of total import and the volume dropped by half in the first 11 months of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020.
Cold rolled coil import rose 32% y-o-y to 5 million tonnes in the period January – November 2021. Major sources of import were Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. Import from Russia and Ukraine were below 100 tonnes in the same period.
Russia and Ukraine were not sources of import for coated steel sheet for ASEAN-6. Major sources of galvanized sheets import were China (50%), Japan (21%), South Korea (7%), Taiwan (4%) and Vietnam (4%). Major sources of tin plate and tin free sheet were China
(40%), Japan (21%), South Korea (17%) and Vietnam (12%).
China was the largest source of import for other coated sheet, including galvalume (69%), Color coated sheet (85%) and other coated sheet (83%).
As for import of pipes & tubes, Russia and Ukraine appeared to be one of many sources of import, but at below 10,000 tonnes a year. Seamless pipes import in the region dropped 18% y-o-y to 1.8 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2021. Major sources were China (63%) and Japan (13%). Welded pipe import was mainly from China (57%), Japan (11%), Vietnam (7%) and Malaysia (6%). There was no import from Russia and Ukraine.
All in all, ASEAN-6 may have a small impact from the Russia-Ukraine tension for a short period of time. This is because these countries are not major sources of import for both semi-finished and finished steel products. Although the import of slab from Russia is quite significant, Russia is not the only source of the import.
Source:SEAISI
