The EU imported more steel from Russia in 2025. The European Parliament now sees a unique chance to ban it.
The EU already had its work cut out to agree to impose a 50 percent tariff on steel imports by a summer deadline. Now, an attempt by lawmakers to graft a ban on Russian steel onto the measure has made things a lot more complicated.
With the four-year mark of Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine looming this month, European lawmakers have broadly backed amendments that would allow Brussels to shut out all Russian steel, choking off an important source of export revenue for the Kremlin’s war economy.
By bolting their proposal on to the measure to overhaul steel industry protections that is already in the works, MEPs hope to halt Russian steel exports where earlier attempts to sanction them failed because such a step would require the unanimous support of the 27 EU member countries.
The answer, of course, is that we barely do.
I can’t find any source papers, but on several summaries and industry infographics, Russia isn’t even in the Top 6 sources for imported steel, meaning they’re under 5% for both flat steel (plates) and longs (beams).
Ukraine, meanwhile is the 4th largest source of long products, and the third largest grower.
Edit: the article is pretty shit. Apparently it’s not steel products, but products used in steel-making. So iron, reduced iron, slab, etc. Russia is (shamefully) the main source of those products for the EU.