Konstantin Gryazev, Dias: ‘Prices for cable are falling because of restricted imports’

A fall in cable prices in Russia is caused by an excess of the material in the domestic market and a decrease in the copper price at London Exchange said Development Director of Dias JSC Konstantin Gryazev in a live with Realnoe Vremya.

According to him, the current situation with cable prices is happening for the first time in several years, and two factors influenced it.

“First of all, it is related to restricted imports. Russian rolled wire producers and steel makers cannot import goods to other countries. Due to this, there is an excess of the material in the domestic market, and everybody is lowering the prices to compete with each other. As for the world market, copper seriously cheapened at London Metal Exchange. If in early February 2022 copper cost about 11,000 per tonne, nowadays it does 8,000. And it has grown because the fall was colossal. This has never happened. And there were some global problems, copper grew like aluminium. Export issues have something to do not only with the special operation but also the pandemic. The Chinese market still has problems because the production is closed there, while the demand is lower than in 2018,” claimed Gryazev.

The entrepreneur noted that nowadays Russian metallurgists are advocating a price rise because the sale price of producers is becoming lower than the prime cost because of “pricier logistics and price fluctuations.” At the same time, Gryazev emphasised that Russian metallurgists don’t have problems with the materials.

“Both steel manufacturers and cable producers have a lot of materials. The problem is different. Some material was purchased in spring when the price was high, and companies have these remains in the warehouse. But now it is falling, and it is becoming more lucrative to buy and make new cable. It turns out to have both a low price and low prime cost than in spring,” the development director said.

On 9 August, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said that all important components that are necessary for metallurgy in the country had already been replaced with analogues.

The ministry stressed that any full substitution of equipment in any sector will take time, but Russia already has a myriad of Russian equipment producers for the metallurgical sector. Their products are in demand in foreign markets too.