Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 shook the global steel trade within days. The two countries were major suppliers: Russia produced 76 million tonnes of crude steel in 2021, the world's fifth largest total, and Ukraine 21.4 million tonnes, ranking fourteenth. Ukrainian mills in Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia halted production as fighting reached them, and Black Sea shipments stopped. The shock hit pig iron hardest, because Russia and Ukraine together supplied a large share of the merchant pig iron bought by US and European mills. Brazilian pig iron export prices rose 6 percent on 25 February alone, and by mid-March the Fastmarkets price for pig iron delivered to the US Gulf had jumped to 1,015 dollars a tonne, up 57 percent from 645 dollars on 25 February. US hot-rolled coil prices, which had been falling for months, turned up sharply to around 1,050 dollars a tonne by mid-March as buyers scrambled for material.
Source: The Fabricator — https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/blog/metalsmaterials/war-in-ukraine-sends-steel-prices-skyrocketing-again
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed).