Ukraine's Federation of Metallurgists (FMU) has called on the Ukrainian government to urgently impose antidumping measures against steel imports from Turkey, arguing that Turkish producers enjoy an unfair cost advantage stemming from their access to cheap Russian raw materials. The appeal was made by FMU head Serhiy Bilenky, as reported by Ukrainian media and cited by SteelOrbis. Bilenky warned that the surge in Turkish steel imports is displacing domestic producers and eroding capacity utilization, employment levels and tax revenues at a particularly vulnerable time for Ukraine's war-affected steel sector.
According to data cited by the FMU, Turkey remains the largest importer of Russian metallurgical products. In 2025, Russian exports of ferrous metallurgy products to Turkey rose by 42 percent to $3.3 billion. Specifically, Russian slab shipments to Turkey increased by 22 percent, square billet exports grew by 50 percent, and pig iron supplies surged by 83 percent.
Russian material accounted for 78 percent of Turkey's pig iron imports, 52 percent of its slab imports and 44 percent of its square billet imports during the same period. The FMU argued that access to low-cost Russian semi-finished products gives Turkish steelmakers a significant production cost advantage. Once processed in Turkey, these materials can enter Ukraine as Turkish-origin goods at price levels that Ukrainian domestic producers cannot match on equal terms.
According to the federation, Turkish steel products currently represent more than 60 percent of Ukraine's total steel imports. On the pipe segment specifically, Ukraine imported approximately 131,000 metric tons of Turkish pipe products during the 2022-2025 period, with annual import volumes increasing two to threefold following the outbreak of full-scale war. Turkish pipes now account for approximately 10 to 15 percent of Ukraine's domestic pipe market, according to FMU estimates, and the federation said this trend is already weighing on domestic production volumes, sales and financial performance.
Bilenky highlighted that Ukrainian steelmakers are simultaneously grappling with elevated electricity costs, labor shortages, disrupted logistics and persistent war-related risks. In this context, the federation argued that competition from low-priced imported steel incorporating Russian raw materials represents a direct threat to Ukrainian steel plants and the industrial communities that depend on them. Ukraine's Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade has already launched an antidumping investigation into imports of welded steel pipes from Turkey following an application from domestic producers.
However, the FMU contended that the industry cannot afford to wait for the conclusion of a process that could take a year or more to complete. The federation is therefore pushing for the imposition of preliminary antidumping duties at the earliest opportunity. In addition, the FMU is calling for Ukraine to adopt a steel origin determination mechanism based on the melt and pour principle, consistent with the approach applied in the European Union.
Under this standard, a product's steel origin is assigned to the country where the steel was originally melted and poured, rather than where any subsequent processing or transformation took place. The FMU also flagged a potential trade diversion risk linked to the EU's tightening steel trade protection framework. According to industry estimates cited by the federation, Turkish steel exports to the European Union could decline by 50 to 60 percent as a result of stricter EU safeguard measures.
The federation warned that a significant portion of those displaced volumes could be redirected toward alternative markets, including Ukraine. Bilenky therefore urged the Ukrainian government to put preventive trade measures in place before such diversion materializes, cautioning that surplus Turkish steel unable to access the EU market could increasingly flow into Ukraine if no protective action is taken in advance. Source: SteelOrbis
Source: steelorbis.com