Russia replaces Ukrainian railway wheels with Kazakh
According to the chairman of the board of directors and the main owner of the United Metallurgical Company (OMK), Anatoly Sedykh said in interview to Kommersant that today there are many suppliers of railway wheels to the Russian market that have come to replace the Ukrainian Interpipe.
These are Prommashkomplekt from Kazakhstan with a capacity of 250 thousand wheels (20-30% more than Interpipe supplied), and certified Chinese manufacturers with a potential volume of 200 thousand pieces per year. And recently a Czech wheel supplier has also appeared.
“It turns out that the current supply on the market is 2 million wheels per year, even without Ukraine. The demand this year is 1.1 million, and in 2021 it will be even less. That is, there is already a surplus - almost 900 thousand pieces per year. At the same time, imports increased significantly in January-September, "Sedykh noted.
The OMK head emphasized that two investigations into the supply of Ukrainian wheels proved dumping and damage to Russian manufacturers.
“Even with a 34% duty, the Ukrainian manufacturer supplied historically maximum monthly volumes to Russia, so was the high demand in 2019. At the same time, the price of Interpipe's products was the highest on the market, and this level remained even after the tax that went to the budget of Russia and the EAEU was canceled, ”he said.
Therefore, according to OMK, the ban on the import of Ukrainian wheels will only affect the loading of Russian manufacturers, and not prices for consumers.