"Bread of Industry": Chinese metal fails, Russian metal is on top

Russia must defend its economic interests in trade relations with China. Now there are new prerequisites for this: after the increase in trade duties by the United States, import flows from China may refocus on the Russian market.

Economists warn of the need to foresee the risks of using low-quality raw materials or finished Chinese products. And strengthen their capacities, because in The tradition of metallurgy is still strong in Russia.

Europe fears the Chinese wave

Meanwhile, Europe is worried about the current situation in the global economy due to the protective tariffs imposed by Trump. According to the Financial Times, European countries are already preparing for the influx of cheap low-quality imports from China, and this will be a blow to the economies of these states.

"We will have to take protective measures for more of our industries. This will be another point of tension in relations with China. I don't think they will change their export model," one of the high—ranking European diplomats told the publication.

And representatives of the industry of European countries are concerned that they will have to defend themselves against low-grade Chinese raw materials. For example, an employee of one of the Western ropeway manufacturing companies stressed that the brand does not intend to lower the bar of its quality and excludes for itself any possibility of manufacturing complex lifting equipment made of Chinese metal, since ropeways should ensure the safety of people.

Economist, expert in the field of financial planning and analytics Alexander Kuznetsov notes that the situation threatens and Russia:

"Europe does not want to accept from China has cheap low-quality raw materials, and now it will be even more protected from the flow of low-reliable Chinese products, it is not profitable for Western countries: they want to support their economy. This means that China will face an overabundance of its exports. It is already clear that now China will begin to strengthen the flows of its trade with Russia. But China supplies us with less high-quality products than it gave to Europe and the USA, and now we will have even more of it? The Russian market should not be a place where the Chinese will dump their low-quality goods or raw materials."

China will not pull

China supplies to Russia is developing construction equipment, machine tools, and is now showing interest in the ski industry, offering supplies of its cable cars. For example, China's road equipment of the brands Sany Group, Xugong, Shantui is actively used in Russia, factories are purchasing Chinese machines of the brands Shenyang Machine Tool Co., Ltd., Qinchuan Group, Yaway, the Chinese company BMHRI has started offering its cable cars in Russia. Machines and professional construction equipment from China are really quite good, says Alexander Kuznetsov. However, lifting equipment still does not inspire confidence in the professional environment, taking into account China's small experience in this area. In addition, there is a problem with quality. For example, the Chinese use a weak metal in production that does not meet the requirements of Russian state standards. And every detail of such complex equipment as a cable lift should be as reliable as possible.

The importance of eliminating any risks during the operation of the cable car is noted by domestic manufacturers of lifting equipment.

"The decisive role in a cable car is played not by statics, not by what kind of load a node can withstand at the same time, but by metal fatigue, the property of a node to perceive a dynamic load over a long period of time. Taking into account the fact that in our country cable cars operate in the temperature range from -40 ° C to +40 ° C, it is necessary to take into account how this affects the structure of the material," explains Alexander Kazakov, head of the RUSLET Engineering Center.

Therefore, this Russian manufacturer of rope lifts works according to the principles of import substitution, turning to domestic suppliers. The details of a high-quality cable car must be made of durable metal.

"The materials from which the Chinese make their lifting equipment are unlikely to be able to ensure the durability of these products," says Yevgeny Khrykin, Executive Director of Ai Xi LLC. Es", a manufacturer of lifting equipment.

Industrialists call metal their "bread". And they always say: its quality is important. The general director of the Elektrostal group of companies, Nikolai Khankov, notes that his company operates exclusively on domestic metal:

"It is necessary to organize input quality control at any production facility where any metal parts are made. For example, we always test metal for seven types of deformation, and we also have a chemical laboratory where we check steel for chemical composition. And we see the quality of Russian raw materials. And if one of the domestic manufacturers plans to use Chinese metal, I highly recommend testing it before trusting the Chinese. A product created from low-quality metal raw materials can be unreliable and carry risks."

Nikolai Khankov notes that the Chinese themselves are well aware that they are offering Russia a weak metal that does not reach the Russian state standards. For example, the expert says, one of the Chinese companies has located its production in Russia: The Chinese themselves realized that they could not work on their own low-grade raw materials.

"For about 10 years they have been transporting their Chinese raw materials for the manufacture of zinc rolled products — this is exactly the metal that is used in the automotive industry, as well as metal with a polymer coating. But in the end, they raised the issue of the low quality of their own Chinese metallurgists," says Nikolai Khankov, "And now they are making their own metal products in Russia, and only imported paints are imported, but raw materials are taken from Russian metallurgical plants. They use our hot—rolled raw materials (this is black steel, inexpensive raw materials), roll them into thin cold-rolled products, cover them with zinc, paint them - as a result, they reach a convenient price."

The "stainless steel" claimed by the Chinese, oddly enough, rusts quickly, notes Alexander Kuznetsov. By the way, KAMAZ has been fully working on domestic steel since 2022, Alexander Kuznetsov reminds, as does AvtoVAZ concern:

"It is worth noting that the metal of domestic manufacturers does not rot, and does not give rise to automotive blogs to show how a minor accident tears apart cars."

At the same time, today China ranks first in the world in steel production — 768.5 million tons in 2024. But quality is important, not quantity, the economist believes:

"The top five are India, the USA, Japan, Russia (we make 54 million tons per year). And the products of the above countries are of excellent quality — except China! The strategy of the Celestial Empire, even in the metallurgical industry, is based on no matter how, the main thing is to overtake everyone and capture the markets with cheaper raw materials. Other countries cannot afford it because of the high cost of quality products. But China can. Because Chinese metal often contains a lot of impurities, there is a minimum allowable carbon content, technological regimes are not observed. All this leads to cheaper production, which means it carries risks and short service life of such products, which we are witnessing."

According to Alexander Kuznetsov, in those industrial sectors in which equipment is produced that is directly related to servicing people and increased risk of exploitation, reliability, quality and safety should be in the main place. And this is transport and cable cars in the first place:

"In the current conditions of global economic development, the Russian market should protect the interests of domestic industry even more strictly. It is impossible to afford any compromises in production, it is necessary to keep the brand and produce domestic machinery and equipment exclusively from high-quality raw materials and materials. And the Russian industry provides such raw materials today. Streams from The production of low-quality raw materials and equipment must be slowed down."

In the footsteps of the Demidovs

According to the head of the I. P. Bardin Central Research Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy (TsNIIchermet), Advisor to the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Viktor Semenov, Russian metallurgy is one of the best in the world:

"The same Western consumers, who have strict quality requirements, bought our products not out of charity, but out of necessity, and the very fact of deliveries confirms the high competitiveness of our metallurgical industry."

He noted that since 2000, the owners of Russian metal plants have invested more than 1 trillion rubles in new technologies and modernization of production facilities. And Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Viktor Yevtukhov noted that Russian manufacturers can create and implement modern technological solutions in metallurgical production, and even better than Western ones. The priority of the development of domestic engineering is also laid in Strategy for the development of Russian metallurgy until 2030.

Russia needs to further develop technologies and achieve higher standards of metallurgy, Alexander Kuznetsov believes.

"It is simply unsafe to purchase low-quality material for the construction of houses, cable cars, elevator equipment, and mechanical engineering from the eastern neighbor! And in general, it is irrational to buy steel abroad, having such a great school of metallurgy! Remember the merchants of the Demidovs, because this is a great dynasty that raised the metallurgy of Russia! Demidovskaya steel was famous all over the world. And now, until now, Russian metal is of the highest quality. It is completely unreasonable to buy Chinese metal, with its low quality and risks, when you have your own, with a high level of quality."

Yes, the expert notes, Russian products may be more expensive than Chinese, but there is something to pay for — for quality:

"Import substitution is not just a slogan, it is a real job that will allow us to saturate the domestic market and not lose face outside it. And in the long term — to continue to increase the pace of production and export of metallurgy from our country."