Russia slashes export tariff on nickel, copper
In a bid to support the country’s crisis-ridden mining and metallurgy industry, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday announced that export tariffs on nickel and cupper will be reduced from respectively five percent and ten percent to zero. That will benefit the export-oriented Norilsk Nickel, one of the major industrial companies in the Kola Peninsula.
The metallurgy industry in Russia is among the worst hit by crisis. According to newspaper Vedomosti, the industry has over the last few months reduced production with as much as 50 percent.
Now, the industry gets a hand of support from government. In a meeting with Norilsk Nickel CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky yesterday, Prime Minister Putin said that he expected that the new zero-percent export tax is reflected in the company’s social policy, that is that the company will not dismiss workers, government.ru reports.
The zero tax will definitely help metallurgy giants like Norilsk Nickel. In 2008, the company paid a total of 425 million USD in export taxes. Meanwhile, the company expects this year’s deficit following lower raw material prices and the world economic downturn to amount to about 330 million USD, Smart Money reports. In other words the tax benefits by far exceeds the anticipated deficit.
Norilsk Nickel is the world’s biggest producer of nickel and a major producer of cupper and several other metals. The company has its key assets in the Taymyr Peninsula and in the Kola Peninsula.
