It was learned that data released by the European Union ofIron and Steel (Eurofer) showed that EU steel sheet imports continued to risein October, while exports were still much lower than the same period last year.In October, the total imports of steel sheets in the EU exceeded 2 milliontons, an increase of more than 400,000 tons from October 2017. Since June 2018,monthly imports of plates have continued to increase year-on-year. This showsthat after the implementation of new steel tariffs in the United States, globalsteel trade began to shift to the European market. In October, EU imports oflong products also rose again, increasing by nearly 200,000 tons to 752,000tons.

From January to October, EU imports of plate and longproducts reached nearly 25 million tons, an increase of 2.7 million tonsyear-on-year. Among them, the import of long products increased by nearly 2million tons, and the import volume of plates was also higher than the sameperiod last year.At the same time as the volume of imports increased, theexport volume of sheet metal and long products of EU steel mills declined inthe first ten months of this year. The total export volume in January-Octoberwas 17.2 million tons, down 1.5 million tons from the same period in 2017.

In the first ten months of this year, Turkey is still thelargest importer of EU steel, followed by the United States. In the first tenmonths of this year, the import volume of the EU's traditional steel exportmarket, Algeria, fell by about 1 million tons to just over 650,000 tons.