On 4-7 March 2024 the 19th International Forum “Scrap of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals” and the exhibition of recycling technologies MIR-Expo-2024 were successfully held at the International Trade Centre in Moscow. The events were organised by Rusmet Rating Agency in cooperation with the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM.
This annual event has for many years been the largest industry forum in Russia dedicated to ferrous and non-ferrous scrap. This year’s event was attended by over 1000 delegates and 75 speakers, including representatives from business, government, and foreign delegations.
The general sponsor was Translom, the silver sponsors were Business-Orbita and Tinkoff-Business, and the strategic partner was HuaHong Rus. Other sponsors included Mozen, Rosbank, Vtorion and Vtorium. The event was also supported by Metallokassa, Silnye Machiny, TKB Banking Group and Torg-Koms.
The first day’s programme began with a meeting of the working group on the reform of personal income tax on citizens’ income from scrap with the participation of members of committees and commissions of the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM.
At the workshop “Diversification of scrap business to work with extended producer responsibility and production of finished products from scrap and waste” the speakers were: Natalia Belyaeva, General Director of Delphi; Alexander Kurilyak, Head of the Audit Department of the Smart Eco Systems digital platform; Victor Kovshevny, Director of the Association RUSLOM.COM; Dmitry Stukalov, Project Manager of Rusmet Rating Agency; and Andrey Zelenin, Director of Development and Legal Affairs of Rusmet Rating Agency. Victor Kovshevny estimated that independent scrap collectors do not have the conditions for growth within the current business conditions until 2030, or it is necessary to wait for the situation with sanctions to change for the better. At the same time, scrap will grow in all market segments except lead. The speaker also presented analyses for previous years.
The first day also saw an open meeting of the members of the Association RUSLOM.COM. Evidence of the Russian economy’s turn towards the Global South and East in the scrap and metallurgy sector was the participation of foreign delegations from Iran (Iranian Recycling Association), Turkey (OTASAD – Turkish Vehicle Recycling Association), and China (Association of Recyclers of Secondary Resources).
The delegations gave reports on the activities of the respective foreign associations, including the exchange of experience in the protection of business interests and the implementation of legislative initiatives. The Iranian Recycling Association and RUSLOM.COM signed a memorandum of cooperation. One of the European industry associations, the Hungarian Recycling Association HOSZ, also took an active part in the event.
At the general meeting of RUSLOM.COM members, the issues of reporting for 2023 and estimates for 2024 were discussed. RUSLOM.COM also presented proposals for implementing the Russian government’s instructions within the strategy for the development of domestic metallurgy until 2030. Also on the agenda were the monitoring the market situation in Russia’s regions and applications for experts to join the Association’s committees.
The event ended with an intellectual interactive industry contest on knowledge of metal and scrap markets, waste management, ecology, technologies, and business partners. A special prize was awarded to the winners by Oleg Semibratov, CEO of Mozen. Mozen is an expert in the development of payment services. Together with Alfa-Bank, the company has developed a cashless transfer service for scrap collectors. The platform offers payments for all types of scrap, providing convenience through one-time data filling, automatic division into acts by type of scrap, and payments via bank transfer or card numbers.
The second day of the event started with an interactive session dedicated to the issues of cash and non-cash settlements for scrap, during which speakers from the banking segment presented their products: Mozen; Prosto|Bank; Jump.Finance, Vtorium, as well as products of Almaz, Promsvyazbank, and Rosbank. The participants were awarded the diploma “Reliable Partner of the Scrap Industry”. Each of the speakers interacted with the audience, posed questions to the participants and summarised the discussion.
The first part of the seminar on Precious Metals Scrap and WEEE Management was held in parallel with the session on cashless settlements and featured the following speakers. Ekaterina Radionova, Deputy General Director for Operations of JSC “ECOPOLIS Corporation”, spoke at the seminar on “Specifics of WEEE Management”. Andrey Belov, an expert from Sacha Corporation, former Deputy Head of the Russian State Assay Chamber, Head of the Federal State Assay Supervision Department of the Federal Assay Chamber, discussed in detail the organisation of collection of scrap and waste containing precious metals.
Anna Shtern, Chairwoman of RUSLOM.COM’s the Precious Metals Scrap and Waste Management Committee, spoke on “Trends in state regulation of the precious metals scrap sector”, providing an overview of changes and current aspects of legislation. Maxim Mikhailov, Commercial Director of Aurora LLC, the moderator of the seminar, spoke on the topic: “Indicators of the markets of scrap and waste of precious metals and WEEE. Harvesting, pricing, dynamics”, where he reviewed the main market indicators in this area.
The opening ceremony of Moscow International Recycling Expo 2024 and the strategic session of the 19th International Forum “Scrap of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals” took place on 5 March. Vladimir Volodkin, President of the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM, delivered a welcoming speech.
Alexey Sentyurin, representative of the Russian Steel Association, provided information on current trends and achievements in the industry. The speaker highlighted the following points: in 2023, total domestic steel consumption in Russia increased to 46.3 million tonnes. The growth was particularly high in the automotive industry – 29.3%, the engineering industry also showed a significant increase, while the energy industry showed a decrease of 4.5%. Steel consumption in the country grew by 7.4%, while exports remained at the same level as in 2022.
Speaking at the strategy session, Andrey Savelyev, Head of the Ferrous Metallurgy Development Department of the Metallurgy and Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, stressed the need to register citizens involved in the sale of scrap metal as entrepreneurs.
Alexander Kobenko, Member of the Coordination Council of the Association “Delovaya Rossiya” Member of the Board of Directors of JSC AKRON HOLDING, discussed the issues of agency VAT, ELVs recycling, personal income tax, and export restrictions, stressing the need for cooperation among all industry professionals.
On 5 March, international cooperation agreements were signed between HuaHong Rus and the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM, and between RUSLOM.COM and the Iranian Recycling Association. A partnership development agreement was also signed between RUSLOM.COM and the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly.
At the industry session “Overview of the global market of steel scrap, special steel scrap, and ferroalloys” leading world and Russian experts focused on important aspects of the industry.
The first speaker was Roman Ayvarzhi, Commercial Director of Vtorion Marketplace, who spoke about the digital platform. This was followed by a presentation from Victor Kovshevny, Director of the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM. He spoke about trends in the ferrous scrap market and summarised the forecasts for the year.
Kristina Gronskaya, Head of Analytics and Research in the Scrap and Waste Management Industry at RA Rusmet, spoke about ferrous scrap price indices and presented RA Rusmet’s weekly review with analytical material on ferrous and non-ferrous scrap.
Other speakers at the industry session included Alexander Shepelev, General Director of Taurus Motors LLC; Anton Fomchenko, representative of HuaHong Rus; Maxim Tretyakov, Chairman of the Board of the Electrocable Association; Dmitry Ostrovsky, co-founder of OOO NPTK “OSK”, “Torg-Koms” group of companies; Natalia Prutova, General Director of “Spetsmarket-M”; Anthea Shi, scrap expert from the Chinese analytical and pricing agency Mysteel Global; Pavel Drynkin, General Director of LLC “BUSINESS-ORBITA”.
The presentations provided a comprehensive overview of the global steel scrap market, touching on topics such as country needs, export and import potential, alternative raw material solutions, government regulation, as well as aspects of decarbonisation and circular economy. The speakers made valuable contributions to the understanding of current trends and prospects for the industry.
The second day of the exhibition ended with a performance of “The Steelworkers”, a Soviet industrial drama in a professional production, based on a play written in the 1970s on the initiative of Oleg Yefremov.
On the last day of the event, the final of the Metal Cup Championship for students of technical colleges and universities was held. Each team presented projects for the construction of a mini metallurgical plant and a sponge iron plant.
The Forum also included a seminar for accountants and CFOs, held by representatives of the Federal Tax Service.
On 6 March the conference “Primary and Secondary Aluminium Market: 2024-2030 Prospects” was held with the support of RUSLOM.COM, the Aluminium Association, and the Secondary Aluminium Association. The conference was moderated by Victor Kovshevny, Director of RUSLOM.COM. Among the speakers were: Nikita Taganovich, Head of the Recycling Sector of the Aluminium Association, Director of Recycling at RUSAL; Vladimir Lukin, Partner at Kept; Alexey Alipchenko, Member of the Presidium of RUSLOM.COM; Sergey Urazov, General Director of the Recycling Sector of the Aluminium Association, Director of Recycling at RUSAL; Vladimir Lukin, Partner at Kept; Alexey Alipchenko, Member of the Presidium of RUSLOM. COM; Sergey Urazov, CEO of Ancouver; Andrey Tsydenov, CEO of Aluminium Alloy Plant; Alexander Kobenko, Member of the Board of Directors of AKRON HOLDING; Evgeny Konyakhin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yug-Met Production Technopark; Mrat Abdualinov, Director of Metallinvest (Omsk); Dmitry Puzanov, Director of the Council of Industrial Enterprises of Secondary Nonferrous Metallurgy; Dmitry Stukalov, Project Manager of RA Rusmet, and others.
Experts spoke about the impact of decarbonisation and sanctions on the aluminium market, as well as trends in government regulation in Russia and globally. Market analysis was presented, including results for 2023 and forecasts for 2024. The panel discussion focused on technologies to improve the efficiency of aluminium scrap processing, barriers and opportunities for the use of secondary aluminium, the impact of global trade flows on the Russian market, and government support for market development. In particular, according to Alexander Kobenko, Member of the Board of Directors of AKRON HOLDING, the share of aluminium in the automotive industry will grow, so the ELVs recycling programme should be reviewed and methods of recycling Chinese cars should be studied.
Alongside the aluminium conference, the second part of the seminar was dedicated to WEEE and precious metals scrap. The keynote speaker was precious metals specialist Andrey Belov, an expert from Sacha Corporation, former Deputy Head of the Russian State Assay Chamber and Head of the Federal State Assay Supervision Department of the Federal Assay Chamber. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in the system of Federal State Assay Supervision, Andrey Belov highlighted key aspects, including laws and regulations governing the circulation, accounting and storage of precious metals for organisations involved in the use and circulation of precious metals.
On 6 March a meeting of the Committee on Economics, Insurance and Financial Risks of the Association RUSLOM.COM was also held. An extended meeting of the Council for the Development of the Recycling Economy and Ecology of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation discussed key aspects of the reform of end-of-life vehicles recycling.
The final part of the event was devoted to discussing the regional agenda, focusing on the implementation of pilot projects in different regions of the country. Experts, ELVs recyclers and representatives of regional chambers of commerce and industry took part in the event and made important recommendations on how to form a unified strategy for the reform of the ELVs recycling sector in Russia. The Association RUSLOM.COM and AKRON HOLDING, as well as Rating Agency Rusmet, proposed the creation of a single register of vehicle recyclers and its synchronisation with state portal of public services “Gosuslugi”.
The Metal Cup Championship ended with a ceremony where the merits and professionalism of the participants were acknowledged. The winners were awarded with prizes, and exhibitors and experts received honorary diplomas for their contribution to development and innovation in the metallurgical industry.
On the fourth day of the Forum, 7 March, the participants had the opportunity to visit the town of Elektrostal and get acquainted with the activities of the Elektrostal Heavy Machinery Plant. This is the only company in Russia that specialises in the production of fluid film bearings for rolling mills.
In addition, an excursion was organised to the Ecoplast plant in Moscow, which specialises in high-tech processing of mixed hull plastics. Located in the SEZ Technopolis Moscow, Ecoplast produces high quality recycled plastic granules ABS, PS, PP. The plant recycles a variety of plastic products, including office equipment enclosures, household appliances, electronics and other goods, ensuring stable quality of secondary products.
The forum and exhibition attracted more than 1,000 participants and became the most notable event during the year in the Russian scrap processing and related industries, also attracting a significant interest on the part of Russia’s international business partners from the Global South and East, opening up greater prospects for external economic cooperation.
