The sanctions imposed on Russia still have loopholes that allow Russian steelmakers to export some of their products to the European Union.
The Metinvest Group’s CEO Yurii Ryzhenkov stated this in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the CFTS portal reports, citing the GMK Center publication.
According to Ryzhenkov, the Russian steel industry’s situation in terms of market share is a bit tricky. The EU introduced the eighth package of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on the import of steel products into the European Union, in October 2022. However, according to him, the package of sanctions contains a loophole that gives many Russian manufacturers a two-year grace period during which they can export semi-finished products to the European Union.
According to Ryzhenkov, the European importers of these semi-finished products buy them at heavily discounted prices, which gives them an advantage over other producers in the European Union who refuse to buy from Russia.
"Russia is unfairly taking market shares from producers that are more prudent, such as Metinvest and other European producers who refuse to buy from the Russians because they have no desire to sponsor the Russian economy. Hopefully, this sanctions loophole will be closed in the next two sanction packages," he said.
