Stainless steel supplies to Russia in April 2023 increased by 29% compared to March, reaching a record level of 51.5 thousand tons. In this respect reported On the website of the Special Steel and Alloy Consumers and Suppliers Association (“Special Steels” Association).
The publication stated that the main increase in imports was due to the increase in the supply of cold rolled flat products (39.6%) and hot rolled products (54.1%). At the same time, the average monthly import volume of stainless steel products to Russia this year exceeds the same indicator for 2022, but is 4.2% lower than the 2021 data.
According to the association, today, against the backdrop of many anti-Russian sanctions, it is difficult to expect importers to be able to restructure their steel purchases so quickly.
The report added that Western sanctions accelerated the process of redirecting purchases to the Asian market. At the same time, already in April, these countries accounted for 95.7% of Russian purchases.
Earlier on Friday, the British government announced About a new package of sanctions against Russia, the restrictions affected eight companies associated with metal production, as well as the Metallurgical Investment Bank.
Prior to that, Bloomberg reported that US authorities would impose a 200% tax on Russian aluminum.