Ukraine has lost billions due to scrap exports: metallurgists report schemes
According to Alexandra Kalenkova, In 2025, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises did not receive at least 200 thousand tonnes of scrap metal, that could have been processed into steel domestically.
According to industry estimates, these products could be exported as metal with high added value, This would have brought significantly more revenue to the state budget and foreign exchange earnings.
Instead, much of the scrap was exported abroad as raw materials.
How the scheme works
The industry association explains that exporters are taking advantage:
Duty-free trade with the European Union
schemes with minimal taxes
weak control over export flows
As a result, it is more profitable to sell scrap metal as a raw material than to supply it to Ukrainian steelmakers.
Attempts to lift restrictions
According to Kalenkov, some exporters are trying to to cancel government restrictions through the courts.
They file lawsuits in court, but do not pay the court fee. After that, the applications are returned, but the process can be started again - waiting for a different distribution of the case between judges.
The industry believes that such actions actually allow to delay consideration and put pressure on the export regulation system.
Context.
Ukraine's steel industry has been operating in an extremely challenging environment since the start of the full-scale war.
Many businesses have lost production capacity or logistics, and access to raw materials has become critical.
У «Ukrmetallurgprom» they emphasise: domestic scrap metal processing brings several times more revenue to the state, than its direct exports.
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