Belarus And Russian Steel Imports Impacted By New UK Tariffs

The U.K. government has imposed a 35% import tariff on iron and steel from Russia and Belarus as part of denying the two countries Most Favored Nation tariff for hundreds of their exports.

UK steel tariffs hit imports from Russia

A March 15 statement from the Department for International Trade and HM Treasury named the two products in its list of goods, totaling £900 million ($1.18 billion), to face the tariff.

Copper, aluminum, silver, lead, and iron ore are also on the list of goods, the statement added.

“These tariff increases will be legislated for by using our powers under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act (2018), and operationalized in the UK’s customs systems CHIEF and CDS, next week,” the UK Government’s statement added.

The move by the UK government came on the same day that the European Commission announced that it would stop the import of Russian steel products subject to safeguard measures. However, this did not include either slab or billets.

The Financial Conduct Authority also suspended on March 10 Evraz’s shares on the London Stock Exchange. That followed the U.K. government’s addition of Roman Abramovich to its list of sanctioned individuals.

The moves are in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. Capital city Kyiv has come under siege. Port city of Mariupol, as well as Kharkiv, have seen heavy bombardment.

Tariffs also target Belarus

Byelorussian Steel Works is Belarus’ main steelmaking plant. The plant is about 220 kilometers south of the capital city of Minsk.

The site has three 100-ton electric arc furnaces. It has a combined crude steel capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year.

Two six-strand continuous casting machines can cast produce 125×125 mm and 140×140 mm billets. Meanwhile, a four-strand caster can produce blooms in 250×300 mm and 300×400 mm diameters.

BMZ can also roll up to 1 million metric tons per year of long products. Those include rebar as well as merchant bar. The plant can also produce 490,000 metric tons per year of wire rod. It also can produce 450,000 metric tons per year of 100×100 and 125×125 square bar as well as 80-160 mm diameters in 80-160 mm diameters.

In addition, the plant can produce seamless pipe, for engineering, oil production, construction as well as municipal engineering. The pipes come in 21.3-168.3 mm outside diameters and wall thicknesses of 2.3-25 mm.

By AGMetalMiner

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