Metinvest: Ukraine is buying Russian metal through Turkish intermediaries

Metinvest Group’s chief operating officer Alexander Mironenko has stated that Ukrainian metal product manufacturers are being pushed out of the domestic market by Turkish competitors who use cheap Russian raw materials.

According to him, trade protection instruments in Ukraine are applied extremely slowly.

Mironenko explained the mechanism of competition: Turkish producers purchase cheap Russian slabs, process them into pipes and other metal products, and then supply them to the Ukrainian and other markets at below-market prices.

“In effect, this means that Ukraine is buying Russian metal, because the Turks roll coils from cheap Russian slabs,” Mironenko explained.

According to him, Turkish producers are dumping across several segments simultaneously — in the markets for pipes, rolled coil, and rebar.

“Turkey is dumping everywhere right now — in pipes, coils, rebar. They take cheap Russian slabs, process them into pipes, and flood all markets with this cheap product, including the Ukrainian market,” the Metinvest chief operating officer noted.

Mironenko pointed to the gap between the speed of Ukraine’s response and that of its trading partners to dumping.

“While the EU and the US promptly apply anti-dumping instruments to protect their own producers, in Ukraine trade protection of the domestic market takes years to be approved, and during that time dumped imports are displacing Ukrainian products even in our own market,” he stated.

Metinvest’s chief operating officer also pointed to the existence of domestic reserves for substituting Turkish imports. In particular, Interpipe could increase pipe output, while Zaporizhstal could ramp up supplies of rolled products for such production.

Mironenko separately drew attention to the situation in the EU market. According to him, European partners are restricting Ukrainian exports through quotas and the CBAM mechanism, while continuing to purchase Russian semi-finished products.

“Europe, for some reason, is trying to protect itself primarily at Ukraine’s expense. Russian semi-finished products were being bought and continue to be bought. This amounts to a policy of double standards,” he stated.

Mironenko also noted that due to the blockade of ports, Ukraine is effectively dependent on the European market, while other destinations have become economically unviable due to high logistics costs.

Earlier, the Federation of Metallurgists stated that Ukraine must promptly launch anti-dumping investigations into metal products from Turkey. In the federation’s view, a significant portion of Turkish producers’ price advantage is formed through cheap Russian raw materials, and such imports are displacing Ukrainian producers from the domestic market, reducing plant utilization, employment levels, and tax revenues.