OREANDA-NEWS At the end of spring 2024, the European Union (EU) countries increased purchases of Russian steel and iron to the maximum since June 2022, the figure amounted to 373.1 million euros in monetary terms. A sharp increase in imports of these types of metals from the Russian Federation is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to European statistics.

The May figure exceeded the April figure by 29 percent. In annual terms, the volume of purchases of Russian steel, iron and products made from them by EU countries increased by 1.2 percent. Semi-finished products made of iron or non-alloy steel (175 million euros) and ferroalloys (81 million euros) turned out to be the most popular type of such products from the Russian Federation on the European market.

Italy became the main importer, increasing purchases 1.6 times to 120 million euros. Russian exporters increased supplies to the Netherlands the most — by 7.3 times, to 78.5 million. As a result, Russia has become the leading supplier of these metals to the EU. South Korea was in second place (plus 30 percent, up to 366.4 million euros), and India closed the top 3 (353.8 million). At the same time, the supply of these types of products from the latter country showed the opposite dynamics and halved.

Recently, Russia has increased not only the export of a number of types of metals to the European market. Earlier, the Vedomosti newspaper, citing data from Gazprom and the European network of gas transmission system operators (ENTSOG), reported that in the first half of 2024, the volume of pipeline gas exports from Russia to the EU reached the level of 15.4 billion cubic meters. In annual terms, the indicator increased by 27 percent.