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Trade turnover between Russia and China is growing
Businessmen interviewed by Business FM say that the problems with payments observed a month ago are beginning to be resolved. In fact, they note, they will have to pay extra for faster payments.
The volume of trade between China and Russia exceeded $180 billion in nine months, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China reported.
From January to September, imports of Russian products to China increased by 1.7%, exceeding $97 billion, while exports of Chinese products to Russia increased by 2.4%, exceeding $83 billion.
Business FM asked Russian entrepreneurs whether they feel an increase in supplies of Chinese products and whether an agreement has been reached with China.
“Trade turnover between Russia and China has increased, and this is natural, since imports from Europe and the US have stopped. Even when importing from Europe and the US, they are imported through third countries. Often this is Turkey, where trade turnover is also increasing, and China and Vietnam are hubs for transshipment of parallel imports. Currently, many people who want to produce buy raw materials or equipment. If you look at the current situation, if you look at the fact that the world has changed, we have friendly countries and unfriendly countries, and, of course, entrepreneurs are now looking at China. China will not be able to replace all of Europe in the first three years, but after that it will have to do so. However, we see this now and will see it in the increase in trade turnover between our countries. As for payments, the situation has stabilized. We make payments in a counter-flow and each bank already has 10-15 clearing agents. Now it has become a very interesting business for many people. Those who have export potential and a history of exporting abroad are actively involved in a new business called "Payment Agent". Today, payments arrive in 3-5 days and cost money. VTB Shanghai charges a 4% commission for fast payments and the money is paid 3-4 days earlier. So, in my opinion, the situation with payments has stabilized. Now it is clear how you will pay, and now there is a cost. And we will see growth in 2025."
"Yes, indeed, three or four weeks ago we were talking about the problems with organizing the transfer of payments to China. At the same time, we are now seeing that trade turnover is increasing. Of course, 2% is not very much, but nevertheless, the plan is working and everything is as usual: energy exports, goods imports. Of course, there were problems, but I think the market quickly adapted. Moreover, the market has reached a saturation point, and now banks are starting to actively provide services. In fact, they do not provide them themselves, they rely on companies like us, who take a commission, but in fact they do not bear any responsibility to their clients. "Today's situation shows that the government is working very effectively in terms of economic development."
“If we talk about our specialization, namely sanitary engineering products imported from China, we have seen a rather modest growth, and in some cases a decline. For several months now, we have not been able to export our products due to the restrictions in the market. And since we could not export our products, we had a sales deficit. Therefore, these quantities were excluded from the volumes imported this year. So we definitely do not have much growth. Since the sales volume has increased slightly, imports of products from China would also have increased slightly if there were no problems with imports from China. In some months, due to the restrictions, we have seen a decrease rather than an increase. Later this year, we will be able to analyze and talk about this in more detail. It would be interesting to see these statistics by month and by industry. I have a strong feeling that this increase is due to an acceleration in sales and revenues in anticipation of the introduction of surcharges and recycling fees, which will significantly increase the cost of cars. So if you look at each month at the end of the year and you see that each month after these additional charges are introduced, there is a sharp decline, then you can see why. So I don’t think we will see any growth for the rest of the year. It’s especially aggressive given the increase in exports to other countries. So in the US and Japan, it’s at 4.2%, and in Latin America, it’s at 12%. In other words, if you have these 2% at the margin of error, you see a noticeable increase in other countries.”
"Imports have naturally developed thanks to cooperation with China and have naturally increased, since there are few alternatives. The quality of any Chinese product can be the best. We set ourselves the task of finding the best product at the best price, and this is more than possible. We carefully and meticulously select and assemble quality chairs and upholstered furniture and control the quality ourselves. Currently, the share of imported goods is about 5%, but we plan to increase this figure to 30% within a few years. Despite the problems with payment and logistics, this is possible. Yes, the price of the yuan has increased, but payment methods have not yet improved. This is only the latest information that we are working on. "We hope to resolve the payment issue at the BRICS summit, but there are still doubts that this will happen."