Russia announced on January 15 to lift up its import taxes for parts of rolled steel products and steel tubes so as to protect local steelmakers in the competition. New taxes will be effective in one month and valid for a period of 9 months, as being declared on the government"s official website. The formal bulletin is to be issued days later.

Import tax for construction grade rod and steel tubes used for petroleum and natural gas industry will be increased to 15% from the previous 5%; that for some special tubes such as those can bear high pressure, will be lifted to 20% from 15%.

In order to stimulate the domestic auto industry, Russia"s government also announced in its additional statement to decline import taxes indefinitely for steel products which are mainly used for motor vehicles and components manufactures with the thickness below 0.35 mm, width below 600 mm and nickel content less than 2.5%. Meanwhile, the government approved to remove the 5% import tax for CR steel products with the thickness between 0.5mm to 1.0 mm, as effective for 9 months.

Russia is the fourth country following Turkey, India and EU, which take protective measures for steel trading in 2009 amid the financial crisis. However, this kind of measures will certainly slow down the recovery procedure of steel industry or even evolve into a world-wide trading competition.