Exclusive EU increased imports of iron and steel products from Russia by 28% y/y in Q1

The bulk of the volume is accounted for by pig iron, semi-finished steel products and direct reduced iron

In January-March 2025, the European Union (EU) imported 1.74 million tons (+27.7% y/y) of steel raw materials of Russian origin. The cost of importing the relevant products amounted to €706.27 million (+5.2% yoy). This is according to GMK Center’s calculations based on Eurostat data.

Semi-finished products account for the bulk of imports. In 3 months of 2025, 853.3 thousand tons of semi-finished products were shipped to the EU (-2.4% y/y). The cost of relevant imports amounted to €392.09 million (-13% y/y). The largest consumers of semi-finished products from the Russian Federation are Belgium – 344.35 thousand tons (-2% y/y), Italy – 208.35 thousand tons (+15% y/y), Czech Republic – 145.26 thousand tons (+42.9% y/y), and Denmark – 135.42 thousand tons (-9.4% y/y).

Pig iron also accounted for large volumes of imports – 696.99 thousand tons (+3.5 times y/y). Revenues of Russian iron and steel companies from the supply of relevant products to the EU market amounted to €254.45 million (+3.2 times y/y). The main volumes were shipped to Italy – 524.62 thousand tons (+3.8 times y/y), Latvia – 87.27 thousand tons (+98.7% y/y), and Belgium – 31.07 thousand tons (0 thousand tons in January-March 2024).

There were almost no supplies of Russian-made ferroalloys to the EU market in January-March 2025 – 1.7 tons against 22.5 thousand tons a year earlier.

Imports of scrap from Russia amounted to 7.93 thousand tons (+24.4% y/y), and procurement costs amounted to €3.38 million (+8.4% y/y). No iron ore supplies were made (9.36 kt in January-March 2024). At the same time, imports of direct reduced iron (DRI) for this period amounted to 186.3 thousand tons (-26.8% y/y) for €56.34 million (-35.9% y/y).

In March 2025, the EU imported 369.04 thousand tons (-31.6% y/y; -26.6% m/m) of mining and metals products from the Russian Federation, including

• pig iron – 18.59 thousand tons (-84.6% y/y; -90.9% m/m);
• semi-finished products – 301.87 thousand tons (-24.4% y/y, +12.9% m/m);
• DRI – 70.85 thousand tons (+57.5% y/y, +8.9% m/m);
• scrap – 4.72 thousand tons (+56.4% y/y, +58.3% m/m).

In March, Russian steelmakers’ revenue from exports to the EU amounted to €171.07 million, down 44.5% y/y and 19.1% m/m.

As a reminder, the EU imported 5.34 million tons of iron and steel products from Russia in 2024. Despite the sanctions, Russian producers continue to receive significant revenues from exporting products to the EU, in particular, last year this amount exceeded €2.5 billion. This indicates the weak effectiveness of the current restrictions and the existence of exceptions that allow Russian steel sector to export to EU markets.