The United States will temporarily – for 12 months – suspend a 25% duty on Ukrainian steel imposed by President Trump under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo has said.
“For steel mills to continue as an economic lifeline for the people of Ukraine, they must be able to export their steel. Today’s announcement is a signal to the Ukrainian people that we are committed to helping them thrive in the face of Putin’s aggression, and that their work will create a stronger Ukraine, both today and in the future,” the statement of the minister is given on the website of the ministry.
The report states that 1 in 13 Ukrainians is employed in the steel industry of Ukraine, and their work is well paid.
“We are talking about stopping the 25% tariffs imposed in 2018 by the Trump administration,” Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, commented on the decision of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
According to her, the Ministry of Economy has been working on this project for several years.
“The abolition of these duties will be a turning point in trade relations between Ukraine and the United States,” she stressed.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2021, the export of ferrous metals from Ukraine to the United States increased by 50.5% compared to the previous year, to $70.76 million, and ferrous metal products – 11 times, to $16.85 million. In total, these two accounted for 55.4% of all exports from Ukraine.
The U.S. Department of Commerce also recalled that some of Ukraine’s largest steel mills have suffered the most from Putin’s barbarism, and Azovstal in Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s determination to resist Russian aggression. The ministry added that many Ukrainian steel mills continued to pay workers, feed and shelter their employees during the fighting, and some resumed production despite nearby fighting.
“Creating export opportunities for these mills is essential to their ability to continue employing their workers and maintaining one of Ukraine’s most important industries,” the statement said.
It also states that following the sanctions, U.S. exports to Russia of categories of goods subject to new U.S. export licensing requirements decreased by 97% in value terms compared to the same period in 2021 (February 24-April 29), and total exports fell by about 79%.
The Mining and Metallurgical Combine PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has opened a new metalware storage facility in Dnipro city with a loading capacity of 5,000 tonnes per month.
The new facility has a total area of 8,000 square meters and both indoor and outdoor storage yards, three cranes with carrying capacity up to 15,000-20,000 tonnes and its own railway spur. It can store up to 10,000 tonnes of steel products, the enterprise reported in its press release. The depot can provide services for motor vehicles as well.
As regional sales manager at ArcelorMittal Yevhen Chumachenko said, now the distribution network of the enterprise comprises nine storage facilities, two of which are in Kyiv and Lviv (two in each city), Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Kharkiv, Ternopil and Dnipro.
Besides, according to him, the depot in Dnipro will serve as a logistic center for the certain districts of central, south and eastern Ukraine.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer of in Ukraine.
