Page 54 - RusRPTDec22

than in September. China is now clearly Russia’s largest source of imports,
accounting already for more than a third of Russia’s goods imports last
summer.
Within China’s exports to Russia in March-September, fastest growth was
recorded for chemical products, possibly a reflection of high commodity prices.
Exports of motor vehicles have grown rapidly, particularly exports of vans and
car parts. In contrast, exports of machinery & equipment grew more slowly
than total exports and have barely managed to make up for last spring’s
decline. It thus appears that China has not compensated (so far at least) at a
substantial scale for Russia’s loss of technology imports from other countries.
China and other East Asian countries have been key suppliers of Russian
technology imports. Nearly half of Russia’s imports of electrical equipment
came from China in 2019. The ten ASEAN member countries and Taiwan have
also been major suppliers of electrical and electronic devices to Russia. Japan
and South Korea have been particularly important suppliers of motor vehicles
and ships for Russia.
The Economic Development Ministry’s customs tariff regulation
commission has approved a proposal of the Agriculture Ministry to raise
the 2023 grain export quota by 500,000 tonnes to 25.5mn tonnes, Deputy
Prime Minister Viktoriya Abramchenko said in her Telegram channel on
November 14. Russia has harvested more than 150mn tonnes of grain this
year covering internal demand for all grains. This is why the authorities
ensured additional exports, Abramchenko said. The grain quota was set for the
exports of wheat, rye, barley, and corn to the countries outside the Eurasian
Economic Union.
Coal exports from Russia declined 7.5% y/y to 142mt in 9M22,
Kommersant reports, citing Metal Expert. In particular, thermal coal supplies to
Asia dropped by 12% to 55mt, while to Europe – by 6% y/y to c29mt, despite
the fact that the embargo came into force in August. Such figures are
explained by the high volumes of coal that European consumers bought before
the embargo. At the same time, Russian coal miners increased coking coal
exports by 59% y/y to c23mt to Asia, Kommersant estimated on Metal Expert
data.
Exports to Russia from Turkey were up 28% y/y in September, and 21%
Transit bottlenecks and the loss of European export markets have
resulted in Russia now selling coal to India with a discount of 70%. This
sale means losses to the coal miners of the Kuzbass and to the budget,
creating more fiscal and social pressure once the bumper revenues accrued in
the first half of the year fade.
54 RUSSIA Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com