– The key goal is to achieve technological and industrial sovereignty with a focus on the domestic market and industrial exports (to Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East). It is necessary to increase the share of the manufacturing industry in the country’s total gross added value to 15.5 percent and the number of companies introducing technological innovations – from 28 to 45 percent. To do this, it is necessary to remove many restrictions and combine the efforts of the authorities, development institutions and business communities,” said Natalia Divisenko, Vice President of the Kuzbass Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
According to statistics, more than one hundred of the more than six hundred industrial enterprises in Kuzbass are large-scale production, while manufacturing industries (ranking second in GRP after mining) occupy only fourteen percent. Large enterprises focus on global metallurgical and chemical markets, mechanical engineering and equipment production, which have been severely affected by Western sanctions. As a result, the industrial production index of the region is declining. In this situation, the heads of leading mining companies and industrial enterprises signed the “Charter on Technological Sovereignty and Import Substitution” in January 2024.
“This forces us to purchase the necessary equipment, first of all, in Kuzbass, and only then consider the market of the Siberian Federal District and Russia as a whole, and last but not least, the proposals of friendly countries,” recalled Vladimir Maslov, head of the regional Industrial Development Fund. – It must be said that our machine manufacturers produce competitive products, expand their range and are ready for further modernization, volume increase and technical re-equipment. And before foreign suppliers left the market and restrictive measures were introduced, coal miners, to be honest, preferred imported equipment, primarily mining equipment.
Kuzbass products have a number of advantages over foreign ones: the use of domestic raw materials, localization of production in the region, availability of permits that comply with Russian laws, and lower risks of impact on the environment and humans. All this is confirmed by expert opinions.
For example, the face conveyor, designed and manufactured in Anzheromash on an individual order for the Uskovskaya mine, is in some aspects even better than its English and German counterparts. The conveyor with a maximum power of 800 kW has successfully passed the tests and now the plant workers are planning to develop a model with a drive power of 1,200 kW. In the future, they plan to produce modern shearing machines that can replace the ones they received yesterday from abroad.
There are other examples where machine manufacturers, taking advantage of government support, launched the production of in-demand equipment. Suffice it to recall the Kemerovo interregional industrial cluster, which, in addition to local companies, includes partners from the Tomsk region and Donbass. The profile of the cluster, which operates on the principle of cooperation, is import substitution of equipment for mines and the metro. And today the Kopeysk machine-building plant orders from its residents self-propelled machines and new unique electric motors for tunnel construction equipment.
Kuzbass enterprises, which received loans from the Industrial Development Fund, invested more than 1.5 billion rubles of their own funds in production, creating 366 and maintaining 2.5 thousand jobs. Product output increased by more than 26 billion rubles. But against this optimistic background, serious difficulties also arise.
– Since the start of SVO, we have seen an increase in interest in our products. However, everyone is asking the same question: why do we still not have proven technical solutions that would easily replace this or that European car? How could we enter a market where European companies had a monopoly presence? And it must be admitted that after their departure, many domestic companies, probably for purely commercial reasons, for which they should not be blamed, turned their attention to Turkey and China. Anywhere, but not to domestic manufacturers,” says Ilya Burov, director of the Novokuznetsk company, which produces crushing units for the mining and waste processing industry and the waste processing sector.
– I don’t think it’s a shame that we are initially copying the mechanisms of Western countries that have proven themselves in our coal industry. I don’t see anything illegal or reprehensible in this, – says Albert Milevich, director of the Kemerovo production and trading company. – The People’s Republic of China has thus begun its economic advancement. Today our Chinese comrades are helping us with consumables and small mechanisms. But this doesn’t help, we have to move on to our own development and production. And consider the experience of Moscow, whose government concludes a contract with a developer or manufacturer to fulfil orders for import substitution, while guaranteeing the purchase of products for ten years.
– Import substitution of mining equipment has been discussed in Kuzbass since 2013, but little has changed since then. Local and specific successes of individual companies are achieved only thanks to government support and attracting investors. Why are we standing still, although in 2023 there will be a slight decrease (from 80 to 75 percent) in the share of Western companies in our market? This is the result of parallel imports, when Western equipment in the seller’s warehouse miraculously turns from a set of spare parts into a finished product supplied to the mine, says Damir Galeev, deputy general director of the Novokuznetsk Innovative Machine-Machining Plant. – The fact is that at one time the transition to Western technologies allowed coal miners to achieve good results: labor productivity increased many times over, and production costs decreased. But now, due to the rise in price of equipment supplied through parallel imports, the cost is increasing. And we have at least a twenty percent price advantage over Western companies. Given the government’s support measures, this gap can be increased to forty percent, which will open up new opportunities for us to work with coal miners. If it weren’t for one “but”: their technological chain has been refined for a long time and, I repeat, gives high production results. And the introduction of any other equipment, even the ideal one, always leads to lower productivity and increased downtime. Just training people and perfecting prototypes of equipment will take three to six months. That’s why they are in no hurry to invest money in new products. Therefore, the Charter is unlikely to work as a systemic tool. All that remains is individual work with those who are willing to change their worldview, take risks and gain experience.
Natalya Petrik, Deputy Director of the Scientific and Educational Center “Kuzbass-Donbass”, recalled that the KRC has a patent office and that organizations in the region that use the results of intellectual activity under a licensing agreement are completely exempt from paying income tax. At the same time, the innovative activity of coal miners, unlike oil producers, is historically extremely low – no more than 0.3 percent.
“Western companies have always distinguished themselves by the fact that their equipment arrives at open-pit mines already tested, ready to operate and with a full guarantee,” says Alexey Miller, director of the Kemerovo gas engine fuel supply company. – Perhaps we should provide some kind of safety cushion for Russian manufacturers during the testing period? So that the burden of investment costs does not fall on end consumers, because these costs are not included in their financial result. State support measures should help conduct tests, not at the expense of coal miners or other industrialists, but should provide them with finished products.
– We need a union of science, business and production. The country has developed a system of state corporations with large financial capabilities, which can have far-reaching plans that can ensure the utilization of industry for decades. But so far we have received only sporadic requests from state corporations. It would be good to move to the strategic level and develop a roadmap. The tasks of achieving technological sovereignty can only be solved in cooperation, primarily with government agencies and specialized non-profit organizations, says Ilya Burov, director of the Novokuznetsk company.
The Kuzbass Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has the status of the National Support Contact Center within the framework of the CIS countries’ cooperation program, is ready to support projects with preferential financing and the establishment of international and interregional cooperative industrial relations. There is also a proposal to resume the activities of the Subcontracting Center, which operated under the KCCI until 2015.
