US extends sanctions on a number of Russian iron and steel companies

At the end of last week, the United States announced an update to the Russian corporate segment of the SDN List (a list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions). The list includes several new companies in the mining and metals sector.

In total, the sanctions imposed by the US State Department and Treasury Department, which were announced on Friday, affect 500 organizations associated with Russian military operations. Another 90 companies have been added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts their ability to do business in the United States.

«The U.S. Department of State continues to designate individuals and entities involved in the Russian metals and mining sector to further limit Russian revenues from this key source of funds for the Russian federal budget,» the State Department said in a statement.

On February 23, the sanctions were extended to Pipe Steek Company, Russia’s largest producer of pipe products, and a number of its subsidiaries. The sanctions, in particular, apply to all major plants of the company (Pershuralsky New Pipe Plant, Seversky, Sinarsky and Volzhsky Pipe Plants, Taganrog Steel Plant, Yartsevsky Steel Plant, Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant and its former shareholder Andrey Komarov).

The restrictive measures also include Samara Steel Plant, which produces a wide range of aluminum products and is the largest producer of semi-finished products in Russia.

In addition, according to Reuters, the list includes the Mechel steel company, which, according to the US Treasury, supplied steel used in Russian attack helicopters, and the SUEK coal company as «the flagship of Russian transport logistics, which has its own railway infrastructure and is also engaged in trucking and other transportation services.

Cyberstal, which is co-owned by Andrey Komarov, was also subject to sanctions restrictions.

As GMK Center reported earlier, last April, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in coordination with the United Kingdom, announced new sanctions against the businesses of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, including the steel company Metalloinvest and its parent company USM Metalloinvest. The SDN also includes the company’s subsidiaries, including Lebedinsky Mining, Mikhailovsky Mining, OEMK, and Swiss Metalloinvest Trading.