Ukraine’s Metinvest has addressed all ports, customers, and partners, asking them not to handle the steel products produced at the holding’s subsidiaries Ilyich Steel and Azovstal and stolen by the Russians. The company says that over 234,000 mt of various steel products at these assets were stored at the port of Mariupol and due to the occupation by Russia Metinvest was unable to ship the goods to its customers in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt. After the city of Mariupol was seized by Russian troops, the steel products at the port were stolen by Russia and Metinvest considered that there was a high probability there would be attempts to sell the products in the region. Ukrainian officials at both Ilyich Steel and Azovstal underline that, according to international and local law, the “armed seizure of merchant ships that were in the waters of Mariupol at the time of the invasion and of Ukrainian products can be correctly described as banditry and plunder”.
In these circumstances, Metinvest Group stated that it is asking all potential buyers to reject any offers related to the stolen steel goods and to carefully verify all contract details if steel of doubtful origin is involved. Particularly, the company asks buyers to pay attention to shipments from Ukraine’s occupied cities of Mariupol, Kherson and Sevastopol, and also from some Russian ports including Taganrog, Tuapse, Rostov, and Novorossiysk. In addition, Metinvest asks buyers to carefully verify the certificates of origin and shipping documents from the cities mentioned above. While asking buyers to reject suspicious offers, Metinvest also asks to be informed about such cases.
The possible sales of stolen steel by Russia in the Black Sea region have been discussed in the market since around the end of May. While there have been fears that the market would be flooded with cheap materials, some market sources are quite sure it would not be easy for Russia to trade these goods. “There is no way for any decent company to deal for a cargo with the shipping port of Mariupol, Ukraine. So, the Russians might be taking the cargoes to Rostov, Novo or Kerch for transshipment purposes, which comes at a cost,” a trader told SteelOrbis. Others state that the additional expenses would not matter for the Russians. “They do not bear any costs for this steel and raw materials since they did not produce them and did not buy them. Ukraine did,” another source said.
It is also believed that, along with shipping issues, Russia will also have trouble selling stolen Ukrainian goods due to the already fixed dimensions. “This steel had already been produced in accordance to other buyers’ requested breakdowns, certain thicknesses, certain widths, certain grades. So, the offers will be fixed with no option, so that it will be obvious for the market where it is coming from,” a trader told SteelOrbis. Knowing the specifics of the Mariupol mills’ production, the stolen goods have to include slabs and hot rolled flat steel, including coils and plates, but also some raw materials such as coal and iron ore from the companies’ stocks.