RIA Novosti quoted the Federal Customs Service said Russia halted from April 1st the imports of Ukrainian steel pipes duty free over the failure to agree on a quota for the second quarter of 2010.
In February 2010 Russian steel pipe producers, accounting for over 70% of the domestic steel pipe market, requested the government halt the duty free imports of pipes from Ukraine starting from the Q2.
They argued the Russian pipe market had narrowed considerably due to the 2008 global economic crisis and the Ukrainian pipe supplies kept the production capacities of domestic enterprises underutilized.
Ukraine metals industry, a major source of the country budget revenues along with the chemicals sector, views Russia as a vast market for the sale of its products at low prices, something potentially damaging for the Russian steel industry.
In 2009 Ukrainian producers exported 230,000 tons of pipes to Russia, while Russian manufactures have proposed to limit this volume to 217,000 tons. (RIA Novosti)