The European Commission is considering a ban on the import of semi-finished products from Russia in addition to finished steel products. This is reported by Fastmarkets with reference to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of the Ukrainian Metinvest group.
Today, the EU has imposed sanctions against Russian supplies of finished metal products, but did not affect the supply of Russian steel slabs, given the strong dependence of its own metallurgical sector on Russian semi-finished products.
Severstal was the most strongly tied to the European market, which fell under EU sanctions and on the US SDN-list and now does not supply to these areas. A potential ban on slab supplies could affect NLMK.
According to the International Steel Statistical Bureau (ISSB), in 2021, about 3.8 million tons of slabs and 516 thousand tons of billets were delivered from Russia to the EU countries. Of these, 3.13 million tons accounted for the supply of semi-finished products to NLMK Group's rolling mills in Denmark, Belgium, Italy and France.
According to European distributors, the ban on the import of Russian semi-finished products will lead to a strong disorganization of the regional market for plate steel .
