The boss of one of Ukraine’s biggest steel companies has called on the European Union to drop import restrictions on products made from the country, arguing it has been “bundled together” in measures aimed a curbing cheap imports from the likes of China.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of Metinvest, told the BBC the recently-imposed tariffs on imported steel to the EU were “unfair” and had been put in place “without any consideration for the situation Ukraine is in”.

He said he wished to see “at least a carve out” for Ukraine to access the EU market.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said the EU “took into account the difficult situation” of Ukraine when deciding its steel policy.

The trading bloc has recently imposed restrictions on steel imports in an effort to protect steel manufacturers of member nations.

It has capped the amount of steel which can enter the EU tax free at 18.3 million tonnes per year – a 47% reduction from 2024 levels.

There are some country-specific quotas in the policy, but the overall aim is to cut the amount of steel that can be imported due to member nations struggling to compete with cheap imports from the likes of China and Turkey.

Despite a free-trade agreement (FTA) being in place between the EU and Ukraine, the FTA does not stop the EU from introducing separate trade protection measures.

“Ukraine has been bundled together into those measures without any consideration for the situation Ukraine is in,” Ryzhenkov said, pointing to the war with Russia.

“Access to the European market is crucial for survival,” he added. “The restrictive measures that have been put in place by the authorities in the European Union, they don’t help.

“I think it’s unfair that Ukraine has been treated in the same way as all of the other importers into the European Union.”

The Ukraine steel industry estimates steel exports to the EU could ultimately fall by about 50–60%.

The EU said Ukraine’s specific steel quota guaranteed exports of the metal, but acknowledged this was at a “level lower than in the past years”.

“Despite the war effort, Ukraine remains an important exporter of steel to the EU,” a spokesperson said, adding it had “offered compensations” to its largest suppliers, which included Ukraine.