OREANDA-NEWS The Russian Association of Electrometallurgical Enterprises (AEMP) complained to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) about the actions of Kazakhstan, which banned the export of scrap to Russia by rail. Kommersant writes about this.

Astana, to one extent or another, closed exports in the period from 2014 to 2018, but this did not apply to Russia, since the countries have a common customs space. However, the authorities can circumvent this condition by prohibiting the shipment of certain goods to border stations.

If Russia remains without Kazakh scrap, the resource deficit in the domestic market will increase to 500 thousand tons. The impact will be on enterprises that process scrap into construction products.

The head of the Kazakhstan association "Republican Union of Secondary Metallurgy Industrialists" Vladimir Dvoretsky claims that with the help of such a decision, the Kazakh authorities are trying to reduce prices in the domestic market. At the same time, the main victims of such actions are the citizens who collect this scrap.

The AEMP proposes to establish a dialogue with the authorities of Kazakhstan so that they lift the current restrictions. According to the profile association, the current situation will lead to price fluctuations for finished electrometallurgical products in Russia, and therefore for rolled metal. At the same time, the raw material situation for the electrometallurgical industry is deteriorating.

Last year, the Association of Russian scrap collectors "Ruslom.com complained that in 2022, due to administrative price restrictions, the consumption of ferrous scrap used for steelmaking decreased by 25 percent, and scrap — by 32 percent.