Page 135 - RusRPTNov22

producers from ‘friendly’ countries
● Norilsk Nickel reiterated its production guidance for 2022 – nickel
output is expected within 205-215kt, copper at 365-385kt, palladium at 2,451-2,708koz, platinum at 604-667koz
UC Rusal filed a lawsuit to protect the interests of Norilsk’s shareholders,
the company stated in a press-release. The aluminum producer believes Norilsk Nickel’s CEO Potanin does not meet his obligations – as a result Norilsk lost some assets and shareholders suffered significant losses. A new CEO should be an independent manager, UC Rusal thinks, insisting on compensation of damages caused by Potanin’s actions. The lawsuit was filed in London.
Russia will reduce coal production by 1% by the end of the year, Russian Minister of Energy Nikolay Shulginov told TASS. In January-July 2022, the level of coal production decreased by 0.9%, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak wrote earlier in an article for the Energy Policy magazine. According to the article, coal exports from Russia for 7 months of 2022 fell by 8.6%, but the decline was offset by an increase in demand in the domestic market by 6.8% to 99.5mn tonnes.
The coal exports of Russia, the world’s third largest exporter, went down by 8.6% on the year in January–July compensated by a 6.8% increase in internal demand to 99.5mn tonnes, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an article he contributed to on October 9 in the Energeticheskaya Politika (Energy Policy) magazine.
“The fall of exports by 8.6% as compared with the same period (of 2021) was largely compensated by higher demand on the internal market, which grew by 6.8% on the year to 99.5mn tonnes since the beginning of the year because of higher consumption by the power sector, which expanded by 14.4% y/y due to low water level of the Siberian rivers,” he said.
Russia’s coal production decreased by 0.9% in the period, he said without providing absolute figures. In spite of the Western sanctions, the Russian coal industry is resilient, and may redirect about 25mn tonnes of coal from the European markets to the East by sending some coal by railway to the Far Eastern ports and exporting some coal through the ports of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, he said.
Russia’s combined market share with the top exporters – Indonesia and Australia – exceeds 80%. The Russian government is considering cheap loans of RUB10–500mn to the coal companies at 3–5% annually for 5 years to be spent on local equipment, he said.
Destinations for Russian coal, in % of total Feb '22 -> Sep '22
135 RUSSIA Country Report November 2022 www.intellinews.com