Page 97 - RusRPTJul20

permafrostmeltingduetoglobalwarming.Asreportedby​bneIntelliNews,​ the spill of over 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel at the Norilsk CPH-3​ poses immediate risk for Norilsk Nickel metals major, controller of the power plant, and the ESG profile of the company and Russian industry at large. RBC business portal reported on June 5 that Rostechnadzor watchdog had warned Norilsk Nickel over technical violations at the CPH-3 as far back as 2017, among them violations over the maintenance of the diesel fuel tanks. But the fuel spill also has exposed potentially catastrophic vulnerabilities of Russian Arctic energy infrastructure in the face of rapidly shifting climate change.
The customs service for Heihe in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province has said some 1.58 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas have been imported via the Power of Siberia pipeline ​over the past six months, ​Russia Today ​reports. The 3,000km (1864 miles) cross-border pipeline started official deliveries of Russian natural gas to China in December. The so-called eastern route’s capacity is 61 billion cubic meters of gas per year, including 38 billion cubic meters for export. According to ​Xinhua News Agency​, the pipeline enters China via the border city of Heihe and runs through nine provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. It has also been connected with existing natural gas networks in China to allow the Russian natural gas supply to reach China’s northeast, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta region. Agreement on gas supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline was reached in 2014, with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) inking a 30-year contract. It is Gazprom’s biggest-ever agreement and the first natural gas pipeline between Russia and China.
9.1.2 ​Automotive sector news
Car prices in Russia are growing by 3-7% on average year-to-date as of mid-June​, ​Kommersant d​ aily reported on June 22 citing the calculations of Avilon car dealer. As reported by ​bne IntelliNews,​ car sales in Russia got a bump in March on front-loaded demand, but ​sales plunged by 72% in April and 52% in May​ 2020 amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the meantime, the price growth in the segment is attributed to ruble devaluation and lower output and sales. Lada brands for Russia's largest carmaker AvtoVaz increased by 0.2-1.5%. At the same time, some recovery in demand is expected, as owning a private vehicle could temporarily replace the banned travel overseas, the analysts surveyed by ​Kommersant b​ elieve. Previously the analysts of VTB Capital (VTBC) estimated that car sales could drop by 20% in 2020 overall.
Capacity utilization of systemic companies in the Russian automotive industry declined from 50% to less than 30% after two months of the lockdown ​due to the coronavirus pandemic, Izvestiya newspaper reports on June 11, citing data of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Automobiles production plummeted by 60.2% year-on-year in April 2020, according to the Russian statistical agency Rosstat. Key reasons for the decline were the suspension of operations by automobile plants because of non-working days in the country during the pandemic period, disruption of imported components’ deliveries and falling demand, the agency told the newspaper.
97​ RUSSIA Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com