The European Union adopted its fourth package of sanctions against Russia on 15 March 2022, including a ban on imports of Russian steel products covered by EU safeguard measures. The ban was estimated to cost Russia about 3.3 billion euros a year in lost export revenue, removing one of its largest steel markets at a stroke. European buyers who had relied on Russian slab, hot-rolled coil and rebar were forced to find alternative supply, pushing up prices for material from Asia and the Middle East. The United Kingdom moved the same day, adding a 35 percent tariff on Russian steel. The sanctions also froze assets and tightened export controls, but the steel ban was the most direct hit on a Russian industrial sector. For European mills, the ban was a double-edged sword: it removed a low-cost competitor, but it also cut off cheap Russian slab and pig iron that some of them had used as feedstock.
Source: Fastmarkets — https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/new-eu-sanctions-against-russia-target-finished-steel-imports/
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