On 7-10 November 2023, the 29th International Industrial Exhibition Metal-Expo took place in Expocentre in Moscow. Representatives of Rusmet Rating Agency took part in the exhibition, including having their own stand at this prestigious event.
On the first day of the exhibition Victor Kovshevny, Chief Analyst at Rusmet and Director of the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM, gave a video interview at the stand of the main information partner of the event – the Metal Supply & Sales Magazine. The analyst spoke in detail about the existing issues of scrap collectors and scrap processors, about possible ways of solving these issues.
The speaker noted that one of the key issues today is the reform of personal income tax for individuals who collect scrap. According to him, after the introduction of non-cash settlements for scrap with such individuals, many of them began to be afraid to deliver scrap because of the need to pay personal income tax, so scrap collection from individuals fell by an average of 15-20%.
Another important issue in connection with the adoption of the law on non-cash payments for scrap, he said, is to work with the compliance of banks to establish adequate limits for individuals and eliminate unreasonable account blocking.
Victor Kovshevny also noted that the amount of metal has been growing in Russia since 2000s for all types of metals, while scrap is not collected enough annually – more than twice less than generated. The speaker said that easily accessible scrap is becoming less, but the volume of hard-to-recover scrap is increasing, which requires equipment, a logistics system, and infrastructure to get back into circulation. This is a complex system that requires the scrap industry to team up with metallurgists to create, but it will increase scrap collection and save natural resources.
As part of the most intensive second day of the exhibition’s business programme, representatives of Rusmet RA also took part in a number of events, including a meeting of the Committee for Ferrous Metallurgy and Heavy Engineering of the Russian Engineering Union and a round table discussion on effective management of technological data in metallurgy. The round table dealt with the issues of correct definition of goals for solving business tasks and effective management of business processes on the basis of reliable technological data. The partner of the round table was MMK, which created the foundation for numerous innovative industrial solutions, used by many companies in the industry.
A great interest of the exhibition participants was aroused by the weekly review of the steel products market published by Rusmet, which examines the shipments of rolled products for the week and the dynamics of changes in the prices of products in Russia. The review includes price indices for ferrous scrap, copper scrap, aluminium scrap, lead scrap, mills’ scrap consumption, analysis of rail shipments, market news and other useful information. Visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with the latest edition of the review and subscribe to it at the Rusmet’s stand.
The participants of Metal-Expo 2023 were very interested in the results of the survey of the business community conducted by Rusmet and the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM on the situation on the scrap and metal markets during the transition to cashless settlements for scrap to individuals on the domestic market and changes on the foreign markets.
At the same time, Rusmet presented at the exhibition a new unique handbook in printed and digital versions aimed at helping entrepreneurs operating in the scrap industry. The handbook contains answers to the most common questions related to scrap generation, scrap procurement, and scrap consumption. It received an active and interested response from industry professionals.
The handbook covers core legal and economic aspects, specifics of licensing and fiscal control, trends in standardisation and technical regulation. There are also sections on pricing and price indexation, ferrous and non-ferrous scrap and metal market balances. The publication highlights interesting examples from global industry practice and provides detailed registers of scrap market players by Russian region with ratings of industry leaders.
As part of the third day of Metal-Expo 2023, representatives of Rusmet took part in a round table dedicated to expanding the use of steel in construction as part of the strategic cooperation with the Steel Construction Development Association of Russia and professional associations of the industry.
The issues discussed at the event included the prospects for improving the regulatory framework for the wider use of steel in construction, the development of technical regulations for metal products and structures, and the implementation of the Russian Ministry of Construction’s roadmaps for expanding the use of steel in construction.
During the exhibition the stand of Rusmet Rating Agency was visited by a large number of participants, including members of the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM. Among them were Yug-Met, Sacha Corporation, Metallokassa, as well as foreign exhibitors such as MTC Group (India), HuaHong (China) and others.
During the event, Rusmet conducted a series of interviews with exhibitors, including foreign ones, which will be published on the agency’s website.
The Metal-Expo 2023 exhibition included presentations of innovative metallurgical products. In particular, Severstal presented its new development – fire-resistant steel C390P, which has increased fire resistance and allows to reduce the metal intensity of steel structures by up to 20% compared to other steel grades.
Also, at the meeting on the inter-industry work programme to develop new types and improve the quality of steel products for the automotive industry, the results of the fifth such programme, implemented in 2018-2023, were summarised.
As Arkady Tikhonov, Advisor to the General Director of the Bardin Central Research Institute of Ferrous Metals, noted, about 70% of this programme has been implemented. In particular, Russian metallurgical enterprises have mastered the production of high-strength steel, which KAMAZ uses to manufacture the frame and some engine parts and units. Cassette rolling technology has been introduced, which makes it possible to produce batches of sheet products with different properties from a single melt. Progress was made in the production of precision tubes and high-strength fasteners for the automotive industry.
It is also worth mentioning the agreements concluded between foreign and Russian partners. For example, Metalloinvest and Lee Jun (a Chinese manufacturer of mining and metallurgical equipment) signed a cooperation agreement. It is aimed at the production of hot briquetted iron, a key component of green steel.
The Metal-Expo 2023 business programme included more than 50 conferences, seminars and round tables covering all segments of the steel business.
Over 800 exhibitors included leading ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical companies, engineering companies, manufacturers and suppliers of modern equipment, technologies and innovative solutions for metallurgy and metalworking.
Over 300 exhibitors were foreign companies, the most prominent of which were metallurgical and engineering companies from China, as well as equipment manufacturers from Turkey, India, Iran, Italy, Germany, Kazakhstan and other countries.
The visitors of Metal-Expo 2023 are the main consumers of metal products from the construction industry, engineering, aircraft construction, shipbuilding, fuel and energy complex, transport and logistics, metal processing and metal trading companies.
The active work of Rusmet at Metal-Expo 23 will be continued at the next largest industrial event for scrap metal workers and metallurgists – the MIR-EXPO-24 exhibition and the 19th Forum “Scrap of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals”. These events are organised directly by Rusmet in cooperation with the National Recycling Association RUSLOM.COM.
