The European Union and its G7 partners plan to ban the import of key goods in the iron and steel sectors from Russia as part of a fourth wave of sanctions to further isolate Russia and drain the resources used to finance its war in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement March 11.
“This will hit a central sector of Russia’s system, deprive it of billions of export revenues and ensure that our citizens are not subsidizing Putin’s war,” von der Leyen said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The EC did not provide a definition of what the key goods would include and had not yet responded to S&P Global Commodity Insights’ request for additional information by time of publication.
A separate statement by G7 leaders did not mention the banning of metal imports specifically but said they were “ready to impose further restrictions on exports and imports of key goods and technologies” aimed at denying Russia revenues.
According to the European Steel Association, or Eurofer, the EU imported 3.2 million mt of steel finished products from Russia in 2020 and an estimated 3.7 million mt in 2021. Russia was the second-largest supplier after Turkey.