Brussels/Frankfurt, 14 March 2022 - Commenting on possible new EU sanctions against Russia, Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of VDMA, says:

"It is important that the EU responds with further sanctions to the war in Ukraine, which is being waged ever more violently by Russia. In order to exert as much pressure as possible on the Russian government and at the same time soften the impact in Europe, the EU should take additional measures to stabilise the supply chains of the European economy. This includes facilitating the supply of key inputs to the European economy - for example, steel from third countries that are not parties to the war. Ukraine as well as Russia and Belarus are important steel producers and suppliers for the EU. As a result of the Russian war against Ukraine, steel products are becoming increasingly scarce in the EU. VDMA is therefore calling on the EU Commission to suspend all EU steel tariffs, EU steel quotas and EU dumping duties on steel products in the short term.

Such a temporary suspension could potentially lead to additional imports of steel products from third countries into the EU and thus stabilise the supply chain of the European engineering industry."

A photo of VDMA CEO Thilo Brodtmann can be found here.

The VDMA represents more than 3,400 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and medium-sized businesses. The companies employ around four million people in Europe, more than one million of them in Germany alone. Mechanical and plant engineering represents a European turnover volume of around 800 billion euros. In the entire manufacturing sector, it contributes the highest share to the European gross domestic product with a value added of around 270 billion euros.