General

Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many Western countries have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Russia, and Russia has also announced that the ruble will be the settlement currency for purchasing its energy. There are reports that India has started using some non-dollar currencies to trade with Russia.

According to reports, Indian companies are abandoning the use of US dollars when buying Russian fuel, and major Indian companies are using many currencies, including the Chinese yuan and the UAE dirham, to buy large quantities of industrial raw materials such as coal and oil from Russia.

Indian buyers bought 1.7 million tonnes of Russian coal in June, with local steel and cement producers paying 44% of the deal in dirhams (the UAE currency), Hong Kong dollars, euros and yuan, sources said. That said, nearly half of Indian companies' coal trade with Russia is now settled and paid for in currencies other than the dollar.

Among them, in terms of the proportion of non-US dollar transactions, RMB accounts for 31%, Hong Kong dollar accounts for 28%, euro accounts for less than a quarter, and dirham accounts for about one sixth.

Although Indian authorities did not respond to the Reuters report, some Indian traders said they expected the share of non-dollar transactions with Russia to increase as banks and related entities took various measures to avoid The impact of Western sanctions.

Earlier, it was also reported on June 29 that UltraTech Cement, India's largest cement producer, used yuan to pay for coal imported from Russia, while sources said other companies were also arranging to pay in yuan to order Russian coal. Reuters commented that the use of yuan for payment transactions will increasingly become more common.

Subash Chandra Garg, a former Indian Ministry of Finance official, also said: "If the Indian rupee-yuan-ruble route proves to be beneficial to the country, there is good reason and incentive for companies to 'ditch' the dollar, which may happen more in the future. Russia became India's third-biggest coal supplier in July, with imports up more than a fifth from June, while trade between the two countries has quadrupled over the past year, according to Indian consultancy Coalmint.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Peskov said the dollar is no longer a reliable reserve currency, and many countries now have such concerns, so it is natural that many countries are looking for opportunities to reduce the dollar's role in their trade volume. share.

Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin previously stated that since the US dollar has no guarantee of actual goods and resources, the world has begun the process of de-dollarization. Sergey Chemezov, president of Rostec, also pointed out that more and more countries are following Russia's lead, giving up payments in dollars and using their own currencies instead.