The government of the Russian Federation may cancel export duties on copper and nickel in 2014, and to take other measures to support enterprises of metallurgical industry, according to Tuesday’s publication in Vedomosti, with reference to the minutes of the meeting with the participation of the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on 25 November.
According to the document, Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry to draw up measures until December 23 to support the industry during the period of worsening market conditions.
In particular, it is expected to extend the preferential rules of granting state guarantees until the end of 2015 and to improve the mechanism of guarantees for the refinancing of payables that emerged in the implementation of large-scale investment projects.
In addition, the draft report contains a paragraph on the subsidies from the federal and regional budgets for preservation of metallurgical enterprises, which should help Rusal and Norilsk Nickel, shut down production at some enterprises.
Until the end of February next year, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Economic Development will have to analyze the accounts receivable of Gazprom, Rosneft and Transneft to metallurgists, and prepare guidelines for the settlement of these debts. Ministry of Labor and companies will be requested to submit a forecast for 2014 of the possible staff reduction as well as the proposal on measures to support the employees.
Until the end of December next year, according to the project, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economic Development will address the issue of state guarantees for long-term stability of tax and customs duties. It was proposed by the CEO of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin in the course of meeting at the Prime Minister’s cabinet.
Tendencies and prospects of development of domestic industry for processing non-ferrous metals will be discussed at the 3rd All-Russian conference "Copper, brass, bronze: tendencies of production and consumption", which will take place on October 9-10, 2014 in St. Petersburg.