EU DRI imports decline by 55% in January

European Union (EU) countries reduced their direct reduced iron (DRI) imports by 55% in January 2025 compared to the same period last year and by 28.3% compared to December 2024. Total imports in this period amounted to 161.3 thousand tons.

Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands were the top importing countries in January.

Italy: 115.37 thousand tons (-18.3% y-o-y) 

Germany: 8.63 thousand tons (-86.2% y-o-y) 

Austria: 15.94 thousand tons (-10.8% y-o-y) 

Spain: 21.4 thousand tons (+430.8% y-o-y) 

Netherlands: 7 thousand tons (74.34 thousand tons in January 2024)

Among the largest suppliers of DRI, Venezuela and Russia stand out. Venezuela shipped 54.07 thousand tons of DRI to the EU, an increase of 86.5% y-o-y. Russia, on the other hand, sent 50.4 thousand tons, falling by 73.1% y-o-y and increasing by 3.5% on a monthly basis. Libya sent 24.3 thousand tons of DRI, up 13.3% y-o-y and decreasing 52.2% m-o-m.

2024 Overall Data

In 2024, EU countries increased their DRI imports from outside the EU by 5.4% y-o-y to 2.75 million tons. In 2023, there was an 11.1% decrease in this item.

The top importing countries were as follows:

Italy: 659.73 thousand tons (-23.7%)

Netherlands: 527.27 thousand tons (+423%)

Germany: 438.46 thousand tons (-33.5%)

The main suppliers of DRI imports were Russia, Libya, the US, Venezuela and Canada, with these five countries accounting for around 85% of the EU's total imports. The share of Russia alone stood out as 38%.