The initiative may be focused primarily on Mechel, which has a debt exceeding 250 billion rubles. Protection from creditors is necessary for backbone companies, but such tools can distort market mechanisms, analysts warn.
Illustrative photo: "Ural steel".
The Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have until October 28, 2025 to work out the feasibility of introducing a moratorium on the bankruptcy of metallurgical industry enterprises. This is stated in the minutes of the meeting of the subcommittee on improving the sustainability of the financial sector and individual sectors of the economy, held on August 29. The contents of the document were confirmed to Kommersant by three large metallurgical companies.
In addition, issues of increasing the export duty rate on ferrous scrap in the amount of 5%, but not less than 25 euros per ton, the abolition of excise duty on liquid steel for electrometallurgical production in 2026 and exemption from excise duty for new facilities with investments of 50 billion rubles for the period of the active investment phase and the next three years will be worked out. years old. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has been instructed to submit proposals on adjusting the formula for calculating the excise tax rate, taking into account, among other things, inflation, taking into account the prevention of significant shortfalls in budget revenues.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economy, Severstal, MMK, NLMK and Evraze did not provide comments.
The majority of analysts and market interlocutors interviewed by the publication believe that the moratorium on bankruptcy primarily concerns Mechel.
According to the results of the first half of 2025, the net loss of the group, which unites producers of coal, iron ore, and steel, increased by 143% year-on-year to 40.5 billion rubles, which was the highest value since 2015. Mechel's net debt decreased by 3% compared to the level at the end of 2024, to 252.7 billion rubles, but the net debt/EBITDA ratio rose to a high 8.8x. As the company reported, as of June 30, the group's debt to be repaid on demand amounted to 224.19 billion rubles.
Illustrative photo: "Mechel".
Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at MISIS Rafael Abdulov calls the moratorium on bankruptcy a targeted measure of support, but not an industry-specific one, since it does not allow the entire industry to recover from the burdensome credit burden. "On the one hand, bankruptcy moratoriums can temporarily save companies from bankruptcy, especially in difficult current conditions. On the other hand, such measures can distort market mechanisms and increase moral risks, as company managers will expect to be saved by the state," the expert argues.
According to Pavel Gamov, an expert on the mining and metallurgical industry at the Stolypin Institute of Growth Economics, the most important thing is to focus on
