Vladimir Putin has suffered a new hammer blow after one of Russia's top steelmakers posted its lowest profit margin in 16 years as a slowing domestic economy dented demand.

Severstal, which is owned by sanctioned billionaire Alexey Mordashov and employs around 50,000 people, said in a statement that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation in 2025 plummeted by 42% to 137.6 billion rubles ($1.8billion) compared to a year earlier. Revenue also slumped 14%. The EBITDA margin, a measure of profitability, sank to just 19% - the lowest level for the leading steelmaker since 2009 - when the global steel industry was being hammered by the financial crisis.

Severstal Chief Executive Officer Alexander Shevelev said in the statement: "Steel demand in Russia fell sharply as the economy cooled under the weight of high interest rates.

He added that a 14% year-on-year decline in demand weighed on steel product prices.

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