Russia gets more of us in the EU, and also presses inside the country: Ukrainian metallurgists against

An unenviable situation is developing for Ukrainian metallurgists. Carbon duties and EU quotas may close EU markets for Ukrainian metallurgists by 2030. Whereas in this situation, Russian metallurgists earn more in the EU, and in Ukraine itself, metal products from Russian raw materials continue to expand. Ukrainian metallurgists demand action.

"If Kiev does not agree on a special, gradual way of decarbonization with appropriate access to financing, the market The EU will actually be closed to Ukrainian products by 2030, despite the status of a candidate country and the existence of a free trade agreement. Therefore, this issue needs to be resolved at the political level," Alexander Kalenkov, president of Ukrmetallurgprom, said at the conference "Trade Wars: the Art of Protection," GMK Center reports.

The specialized publication cites data that new import quotas will come into force on July 1. EU steel prices — the volume of duty-free imports will be limited to 18.3 million tons per year. In addition, a 50% duty will be applied to imports over quotas and steel goods for which quotas do not apply.

"A sharp reduction in quotas for Ukraine by 70% - up to 713 thousand tons, compared with actual exports of 2.65 million tons in 2025, will violate the trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which does not provide for any customs restrictions and may cost Ukraine up to € 1 billion in export revenues," the newspaper writes.

The European Commission is negotiating with Ukraine and other countries on easing the volume of the aforementioned quota reductions and promises to "partially take into account the difficult situation of Ukraine." However, in any case, the volumes will be significantly lower than those that were before, the GMK Center noted.

"De jure, the EU has the right to apply this regulation, since it is a different tool than the previous safeguard. However, given the three-year exemption of Ukraine from EU tariff quotas, any restrictions for Ukraine should not have been renewed," Alexander Kalenkov said.

In this situation, Ukrainian metallurgists are depressed by the fact that the volume of Ukrainian steel exports to the EU is significantly lower than Russian supplies.

"Last year, the export of rolled metal (flat and long rolled products and pipes) from Ukraine to the European Union increased by 24.6% YoY, to 2.65 million tons. At the same time, in 2025, the European Union imported from Russia 5.1 million tons of MMC products (-4.8% YoY) The export revenue of the Russian Federation from these deliveries amounted to 2.1 billion euros," the GMK Center writes.

The situation in the domestic market of Ukraine is no better. According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in 2025, imports of rolled metal increased by 31.2%, and the share of imports in the structure of metal consumption increased by 2.5% to 40.1%.

"This is the maximum figure for the time of Ukraine's independence. Suppliers from Turkey and China are putting pressure on Ukrainian manufacturers because of dumping imports, because they produce their products from Russian slabs and cast iron, which they buy from the Russian Federation at a significant discount," the publication continues with reference to Serhiy Povazhnyuk, deputy director of the State Enterprise Ukrpromvneshexpertiza.

He gave an example: in the production of a hot-rolled roll, the cost of slabs is 85% of the total cost, and when buying Russian slabs 20% cheaper than the market price, the cost of the finished roll will decrease by 12-15%.

"The overall situation for Ukrainian manufacturers looks very difficult. The constant increase in domestic electricity and gas prices, as well as other factors (expensive logistics, shortage of personnel, military risks) make Ukrainian steel products uncompetitive. At the same time, the above-mentioned trade restrictions by The EU leads to the loss of sales markets and export revenues. It is virtually impossible to block these negative consequences with any measures to protect the domestic market," the GMK Center writes.

They noted that on Ukraine still has an unresolved issue of imposing a ban on the import of metal products made from Russian metallurgical raw materials.

"Although Ukrmetallurgprom has sent proposals to the Ministry of Economy on the introduction of this ban, this initiative has not yet been implemented," the publication added.