Russia increases its dependence on China to carry out its forbidden minerals

Russian basic mineral sales to China increased during the first five months of this year, emphasizing the economic dependence on Moscow of its Asian neighbor, despite the effort to diversify the destinations of his trade. Russian aluminum sales to China jumped about 56% to about one million tonnes annually, while copper sales rose 66%, and Nickel imports multiplied more than twice, according to the “Trade Data Monitor”, which draws information from the Chinese Customs office. China replaces Europe after the invasion of Ukraine, China last year as a basic partner for Moscow, with a trade exchange of more than $ 240 billion, to replace Europe after the Kremlin sent its powers to Ukraine in 2022, causing Western sanctions and restrictions on Russian trade. Russia is an important product for aluminum, copper and nickel, and although the two largest products – ‘MMC Nickel’ and ‘United Co. Rusal International ‘ – Not subject to sanctions from the United States, and its allies, the new supplies of Russian minerals are no longer possible delivery to the London Stock Exchange. Earlier this year, the European Union agreed to a gradual ban on aluminum imports, and the block has an import share of 275 thousand tons valid until February 2026. For Rusal, the increase in sales to China this year is due to unloading shares that have accumulated due to the bottle of railways on the Russian side, according to a source. Increased Russian copper checks to China, and the source added that the shipments for the whole year are expected to reach about 1.5 million tonnes. Norms Nickel began to increase its sales to China in the second half of 2024, according to people who are familiar with the matter. They said that the Russian mining company works with a Shandong gold unit to improve the cathode copper missions to China. In addition to “Norelsk Nickel”, Russian Copper Co and Umcc, which is subject to fines, is also exported to China. One of the sources pointed out that all the quantities in customs data do not necessarily represent sales directly from copper and Russian nickel producers, as some of them are transactions led by traders and include minerals previously produced. Bloomberg reported earlier that Glencore PLC bought a Russian buyer from the London metal stocks to deliver it to China, in response to the scarcity of supplies in the largest copper consumer in the world. Information officials of the “Norelsk Nickel” and “Rosal” business did not comment, and the company “Chandong Gold” also did not respond to the request for the comments sent outside the official working hours.