Because the EU and the US cannot do without Russian nickel
The European Union and the United States have not imposed sanctions on Vladimir Potanin, the oligarch president of Nornickel, and indeed have greatly increased imports of nickel and aluminum from Russia. All the details
Why can't the EU and the US do without Russian nickel?
Despite the numerous sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine and the desire to deprive the Kremlin of foreign currency, the European Union and the United States have increased purchases of industrial metals from Russia.
HOW MUCH METAL PURCHASES GROW
In fact, from March to June, European and American imports of nickel and aluminum grew by 70 percent, for a total value of almost 2 billion dollars, according to the United Nations Commodity Trade (Comtrade) database.
THE STATE OF THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY
The Reuters agency, which analyzed the data, writes that the trading of nickel and aluminum "highlight the West's difficulty in exerting pressure on the Russian economy", which is performing better than it was believed thanks to the trade in energy raw materials. and metal, although the sanctions are having a concrete impact on some sectors and aggravating the country's prospects for future development.
IMPORTS OF NICKEL
Russia is worth about 10 percent of the world's production of nickel, a key metal for the production of stainless steel and batteries for electric vehicles. The Nornickel (or Norilsk Nickel) company, chaired by Vladimir Potanin , alone accounts for 15-20 percent of the global output of nickel suitable for batteries.
In the period March-June 2022, U.S. imports of Russian nickel grew 70 percent year-on-year. Over the same period, those of the European Union increased by 22%.
Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prices of the metal exceeded 100 thousand dollars per ton on the London Metal Exchange (the most important exchange for trading contracts on metals), compared to 20,530 dollars at the beginning of 2022. On March 8, the stock exchange suspended trading, attracting strong criticism .
NO PENALTY TO POTANIN
At the end of June, the UK imposed sanctions on Nornickel's president, Vladimir Potanin, who owns 36 per cent. Canada had already done the same; the United States and the European Union, on the other hand, do not. Potanin is the second richest man in Russia (after the steel magnate Vladimir Lisin) and is one of the oligarchs closest to President Vladimir Putin.
Nornickel is a large producer not only of nickel but also of palladium (with a share of 40 per cent of the world total), another metal used in the automotive industry: it is used in catalytic converters that reduce emissions from vehicles with internal combustion engine.
Unlike the European Union, the automotive sector has a low weight in the UK, which is only 1.1 per cent of global car production. However, in London – as mentioned – the London Metal Exchange is based.
IMPORTS OF ALUMINUM
As for aluminum, Russia is the country that produces the most aluminum in the world after China , with a share of 6 percent of the global total.
In the period March-June 2022, the European Union imported an average of 78,207 tons per month from Moscow, 13 percent more than in the same period in 2021. The authority of the port of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe, said that the volumes of Russian aluminum handled grew by 0.8 percent in the first half of 2022, and break bulk cargoes (those not shipped in containers) by 17.7 percent.
In the United States, on the other hand, growth in percentage terms was higher (+21 per cent), even if the monthly quantities purchased from Russia were lower (23,049 tons). American steel companies cannot do without Russian aluminum because they are already giving up on Chinese aluminum.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/nichel-russia-acquisti-unione-europea-stati-uniti/ on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 08:51:22 +0000.