Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

RIA Novosti reported that from January to May, Russia's foreign trade volume steadily expanded, with imports increasing by 25.8% year-on-year. Imports are an important source of budget revenue for the Russian Federation, and their contribution rate is increasing year by year. From January to May of 2014, imports and exports accounted for 32% and 68% of Russia's foreign economic activity income, respectively, while the proportions from January to May of 2021 were 69% and 31%, respectively.

Russia's foreign trade maintains a surplus, and the scale of imports is smaller than exports, but the growth rate is relatively fast. According to statistics from the Central Bank of Russia, Russian imports in 2020 have increased by five times compared with 20 years ago, and the peak of imports occurred in 2012-2013 (a period of stable ruble exchange rate and high energy prices).

In order to implement the import substitution policy, about half of Russia’s imports since 2014 have been intermediate products necessary for the production of final products in Russia, such as vehicles, electrical equipment, chemical products and other technical products. The reason is that Russian companies cannot produce the above products. Or the quality and price of similar foreign products are more competitive. During the epidemic, Russia greatly expanded the scale of imports of medical equipment. At the same time, due to the economic recession, Russia's procurement of ground transportation vehicles, ferrous metals, and rare earth metals decreased.

During the epidemic, the source countries of Russia's imports have undergone significant changes. The share of European, CIS, and Latin American countries in Russian imports has declined, and the share of Asian countries has risen sharply. Russia's imports from Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and India increased by 3.1%, 31.%, 1.7%, and 1.5% respectively year-on-year. China is still Russia's largest source of imports, 51% of exports to Russia are mechanical and electrical products, and 29% of Russia's imported equipment and 9% of ground transportation vehicles are provided. The EU is Russia's largest source of imports, accounting for 38.5% of Russia's imports. The United States is Russia's important trading partner, and Russia's imports from the United States under the epidemic have maintained the recovery trend since 2015. In 2020, Russia imported 13 billion U.S. dollars from the United States, mainly including aircraft, engines, vehicles and other equipment (industry, agriculture, measurement, medical and other fields).