Russian Prime Minister Mr Mikhail Mishustin has signed a decree that will introduce export duties on ferrous and non-ferrous metals starting 1 August 2021 for sales outside the Eurasian Economic Union. The duties on 340 products, ranging from USD 54 to USD 2,321, will be in effect through the end of December 2021. The duties, which are intended to control inflation of metal prices domestically and cool domestic metal prices are expected to raise approximately RUB 160 billion rubles over that five-month period. The taxes are said to compensate consumers for rapid rises in commodity prices of between 60% and 100% over the last 12 months.

The duty’s base rate will be 15%, with the following specific rates for each product

Iron ore concentrate – USD 54 per tonne

Flat hot-rolled steel and rebar – USD 115 per tonne

Cold-rolled mill products and wire – USD 133 per tonne

Stainless steel and ferroalloys –USD 150 per tonne

Aluminium – USD 254 per tonne

Copper – USD 1,226 per tonne

Nickel – USD 2,321 per tonne

The duties will not be applied to Russia’s aluminium exports to countries within the Eurasian Economic Union ie Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. All Russian steel products for export outside of the EAEU with a bill of lading dated August 1 or later would be subject to the tax

Russian metal companies denounced the measure as discriminatory and purely fiscal. Nornickel President & Chairman Mr Vladimir Potanin told journalists “The government's incentive is clear, social justice in the form of larger contributions to the public budget from highly profitable companies, but the tools should have been more fine tuned."