French imports of flat and long products from countries outside the EU increased by almost 22% year-on-year in 2016 to an average of 39,000 tonnes/month. In December alone these imports also increased, by 16.7% y-o-y to 28,000t, Kallanish learns from steel producers’ association Fédération Française de l’Acier (FFA).

In January-December last year flats imports jumped by over 23% on-year to 32,000 t/month compared to 26,000 t/month in 2015. In December they increased by over 22% on-year to 22,000t, the association reveals. French longs imports hiked by 16.7% to 7,000 t/month in 2016 and were stable at 6,000t in December, both year-on-year.

Last year India recorded the largest growth in exports to the EU27 countries, FFA says. Landings of 172,000 t/month of steel represent a 70.3% y-o-y jump. In December alone Indian-origin imports skyrocketed by almost 218% to 267,000t.

Turkey saw the second-largest growth among third country suppliers to Europe last year, with export growth of 67% to 187,000 t/month. In December it supplied 194,000t, up 81.3% y-o-y.

With a 44.3% y-o-y increase to an average of 228,000 t/month of flats and longs exports to the EU, South Korea had the third-largest growth of supply to EU. It was followed by Brazil that in 2016 showed a 33.1% on-year rise in supply to the EU.

Russia remained the largest supplier overall, although its exports to EU grew only 7% to 619,000 t/month. China was the only country to record a decline in supply to the EU in 2016, by -8.6% to 498,000 t/month.