EU Tariffs Aimed at China Are Hitting Ukraine, Steel Boss Says

Ukraine has been bundled together with the likes of China in European Union steel import restrictions aimed at curbing cheap imports, the chief executive of one of the country's biggest steel companies has complained. Yuriy Ryzhenkov of Metinvest told the BBC that the recently imposed tariffs were 'unfair' and had been put in place 'without any consideration for the situation Ukraine is in'.

Ryzhenkov said he wished to see 'at least a carve out' for Ukraine so the country can keep access to the EU market. In his words, access to the European market is crucial for Ukraine's survival, and the restrictive measures imposed by the EU authorities do not help.

The EU has recently tightened restrictions on steel imports to protect manufacturers in member nations. Under the new policy, the amount of steel that can enter the EU tax-free is capped at 18.3 million tonnes per year — a 47 percent reduction from 2024 levels. There are some country-specific quotas, but the overall aim is to cut imports as member nations struggle to compete with cheap supplies from countries such as China and Turkey.

Although a free-trade agreement (FTA) is in place between the EU and Ukraine, the FTA does not stop the EU from introducing separate trade-protection measures. Pointing to the war with Russia, Ryzhenkov said Ukraine had been 'bundled together' into those measures without any consideration for its situation, and that it was unfair for Ukraine to be treated the same way as all other importers into the EU.

Ukraine's steel industry estimates that exports to the EU could ultimately fall by about 50 to 60 percent as a result. That would be a heavy blow for a country at war, because Europe is the top customer for Ukrainian steel.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said the EU 'took into account the difficult situation' of Ukraine when deciding its steel policy. The spokesperson said Ukraine's specific quota guaranteed exports of the metal, while acknowledging this was at a level lower than in past years. Despite the war effort, Ukraine remains an important exporter of steel to the EU, the spokesperson added, and the bloc had 'offered compensations' to its largest suppliers, which included Ukraine.

Steel is a foundation of Ukraine's economy. Before Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, metallurgy and mining accounted for roughly 10 percent of the country's national income and a third of its exports. That industry has since been battered by continued Russian bombardment.

Ryzhenkov said all of Ukraine's steel mills have been bombed at points since the conflict began in 2022, and that strikes had 'intensified significantly recently'. At one point in September, there was 'no single tonne of steel produced' in Ukraine for the first time in about 150 years, he added. Almost 800 Metinvest workers have been killed since the war began.

On worker safety, he said the company had improved the covered areas at its mills where workers can shelter during air raids. The only thing the company can do, he said, is to design procedures to keep people safe, obey those procedures and try to minimise the risks — a whole steel mill cannot be covered to avoid it being damaged.

Ryzhenkov warned that the coming winter would be 'one of the hardest in our history'. He said the situation was dire: the industry has no logistics to access any market apart from the EU, and cutting that available market by 60 percent does not help the industry to survive.

Ukraine's steel sector is thus squeezed not only by war damage but also by the trade policy of its allies. Industry leaders in Kyiv are asking for at least a carve-out; attention now turns to how far the European Commission responds to that demand.