Page 62 - bne IntelliNews Russia OUTLOOK 2025

5.8 Metals and Mining
Increasingly isolated by Western sanctions, Russian metals producers are increasingly being pushed into China’s arms, which went from being a primary competitor to a principal client in 2024.
The EU’s fourteenth sanctions package adopted in April included bans on imports of Russian aluminium, copper and nickel, all critical inputs for producing a wide range of goods from drinks cans to semiconductors and electric vehicles (EV).
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent sanctions, Russia has increasingly been forced to redirect its metal exports from Europe to China.
Rusal, Russia's top aluminium producer, reported that its revenues from exports to China almost doubled in 2023 despite China's substantial domestic aluminium production and international competition.
Nornickel, Russia’s leading producer of nickel and copper, saw its revenue from exports to China grow by 74.2% in 2023, while revenue from exports to North America fell by 30%. Nornickel head and sanctioned oligarch Vladimir Potanin said that China will soon account for over half of the company’s sales, Vita Spivak reported in a recent paper for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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