On July 15, on the eve of the Metallurgist Day, the Association NSRO RUSLOM.COM with the support of the Government of St. Petersburg held a round table “Achievements and new challenges in the metal and scrap market. Foreign economic activity trends. Development of technologies and investment potential”. The round table was preceded by an excursion to the scrap collection site owned by UNI-BLOK LLC.
During the event, the participants discussed the current situation on the Russian and world markets for scrap and metals in the context of export restrictions, potential ways of developing foreign economic activity in the field of metallurgy and scrap procurement, new technologies in the scrap market and in the field of waste disposal, as well as the environmental agenda.
The event was opened with his opening remarks by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg Arbi Abubakarov. The speaker noted the importance of holding a round table and similar events for establishing new ties and effective dialogue between the business community and government authorities.
In continuation, the head of the Export Development Department of the Committee for Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade of St. Petersburg Anna Varyagina and Vladimir Volodkin, President of the NSRO RUSLOM.COM Association, presented their greetings for their contribution to the development of raw materials safety and environmental friendliness of metallurgy …
The next speaker of the round table was Viktor Kovshevny, Director of the Association NSRO “RUSLOM.COM”. He noted that in the context of the scrap market, St. Petersburg is an export-oriented region. At the same time, the contribution of scrap collectors to the economy of the Northwestern Federal District is very significant – 1 workplace of a scrap collector creates 4 jobs in related industries, and the economic contribution of the scrap collecting industry to the gross regional product is about 99 billion rubles. Moreover, there is significant growth potential. Due to diversification and increased efficiency, the industry in the region can grow 3 times by 2030.
Referring to the current situation on the scrap market, Viktor Kovshevny drew the attention of the event participants to the fact that Russia possesses a colossal metal fund – its volume exceeds 1.6 billion tons. This clearly indicates that there is no shortage of scrap in Russia.
Andrey Savelyev, Deputy Head of the Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, presented a plan of priority measures to increase the efficiency of the scrap market. Among the most significant, the speaker noted: the transition to non-cash payments with individuals, increased liability of individuals for violation of the rules for working with scrap, cancellation of personal income tax from the delivery of scrap.
In addition, the speaker drew attention to the reform of control and supervision activities in the market for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, which is currently being worked out by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia. Its purpose is to clarify the requirements for which there was the greatest legal uncertainty. In addition, enterprises will be assigned a risk category to determine the frequency and depth of licensing compliance checks. Another innovation will be the involvement of industry SROs in inspections.
Sergey Kurnosov, General Director of Uni-Blok LLC, spoke about the regional experience and peculiarities of the scrap market in St. Petersburg. According to the speaker, the surplus of scrap in the region is 1.7 million tons per year, and this scrap is not in demand by metallurgists. The reasons are in the peculiarities of logistics and capacity distribution.
At the same time, there is a surplus of carbon-free electricity and a surplus of personnel in the region. All this suggests that it is necessary to invest in the creation of production facilities in the region.
Referring to the issue of export duties, Sergei Kurnosov said that he supported the introduction of duties on the export of raw materials. According to the speaker, this contributes to the fact that the processing will remain on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The position of the Association against the introduction of duties is known; all the more valuable is the presence of different opinions of market professionals during the round table, which objectively represents the points of view of the participants in the discussion. The next speaker was Dmitry Potapenko, an entrepreneur, blogger, economist. The speaker expressed his attitude to the issue of introducing export duties.
According to the entrepreneur, the current approach to the introduction of duties is fundamentally wrong. It does not lead to real consumer support – as a result, metallurgists will stop their investment programs and development will stop.
Nikolay Malykh, the founder of INTERVTORRESURS LLC, spoke about the importance of scrap and metal exports for maintaining the market balance, and also highlighted the position of the business on export restrictions and an increase in export duties on metals and scrap.
The quotas, and then the increase in duties on scrap, had a strong impact on exporters of scrap metal. At the same time, according to the speaker, the introduction of duties on metal somewhat balanced the situation.
Mikhail Tarakanov, Director of MegaRex LLC, made a presentation on new technologies in the scrap market and in the field of waste disposal. The speaker presented proposals on a possible way to increase scrap collection in Russia.
The volume of scrap metal that does not require deep processing and complex mining is limited. The exemption from export duties for shredding scrap will allow the recycling of those types of metal-containing waste that are not currently being recycled. Since the shredder does not process scrap metal thicker than 6 mm, then, accordingly, those types of scrap that are currently most in demand from Russian metallurgists will not be involved in export. At the moment, private companies have only a few units of shredders in Russia, an increase in their number will significantly improve the deeper processing of metal-containing waste and bring into circulation the scrap metal that was previously not in demand on the market and, in fact, was simply thrown away, clogged the soil and worsened the environment.
Continuing the event, the Director of Vtorium Alexander Andreevsky spoke about new opportunities for working in the field of settlements with individuals, suppliers of scrap through integration with the Sberbank ecosystem.
To test the system, you can connect to the Vtorium system, open an account with Sberbank and set up a personal account. The staff will assist you.
Mikhail Gagarin, Development Director of Rusmet Rating Agency, touched upon the investment attractiveness of recycling. According to the speaker, the lack of large investments in the industry is due to the fact that now the industry is not entirely transparent and investments are high-risk. It is noteworthy that this statement was contested by several leading participants in the scrap processing industry, who have the highest ratings from Rusmet. These participants spoke about its high profitability and investment attractiveness, the transparency of their enterprises for potential investors. Thus, the role of the rating of market participants by Rusmet becomes obvious, reflecting the objective economic reality, on the one hand, and the current state of the leading enterprises in the industry, whose activities are at a high global level, on the other.
Andrey Zelenin, General Director of Rusmet RA LLC, drew attention to another aspect of the appropriateness of rating, which allows supplying bank compliance and government authorities with ready-made solutions for the reliability of scrap collectors.
Touching upon the issue of the introduced duties on the export of scrap and metals, the speaker noted that, in his opinion, such measures will not lead to a decrease in the cost. Regulation must be placed in the hands of the market.
Expert Vladimir Zotov continued the round table with a presentation on the role of scrap collectors in optimizing the carbon footprint. The scrap harvesting industry is an effective mechanism for reducing the carbon footprint and increasing the competitiveness of exported products.
The carbon footprint of primary metals production differs significantly from secondary metals production. The speaker believes that due to such a difference, it is possible to generate carbon credits and sell them through the register being created in the Russian Federation. 100 tons of scrap steel saves 157 tons of CO2. The cost of carbon units on the European market is 50-57 euros per tonne.
At the end of the round table, the participants took part in the discussion. During the discussion, scrap collectors emphasized the usefulness of the format of the event with the participation of regional authorities and proposed to conduct more active communication with them on topical problems of the industry, including during future events of the Association in St. Petersburg.