Berlin, 31.03.2022: In addition to a halt to imports of Russian oil, natural gas and coal, PowerShift is also calling for a halt to Russian metal imports. Although these exports finance the state budget to a lesser extent than the fossil raw materials, the Russian state, Russian companies and Russian oligarchs also benefit massively from the export of metallic raw materials to Germany and Europe. In 2020, 44 percent of German nickel imports came from Russia, 23 percent of iron imports and 22 percent of aluminium imports.
‘In the same year, metals worth more than EUR 2 billion were imported from Russia to Germany. This is roughly equivalent to the value of German coal imports from Russia", says Tshin-Ilya Chardayre, author of a Publication published today by PowerShift. “Russian mining companies are often owned by individual oligarchs, some of whom are on the UK sanctions list. This trade has so far been spared by the EU or Germany.’
Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, PowerShift has been pointing out the problems of high raw material consumption and the need for a raw material transition for years. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has once again massively increased this urgency. In order to reduce Germany's dependence on fossil and metallic raw materials from Russia as quickly as possible and at the same time protect the climate, a change in raw materials must be initiated. This must be based on comprehensive supply chain legislation, substitution and reduction of primary raw materials and implementation of a circular economy. The SPD, the Greens and the FDP have Coalition agreement It has already been stated that primary raw material consumption must be reduced.
“So far, German raw materials policy has focused unilaterally on imports and neglected the expansion of the circular economy. The fatal consequences are now emerging as these imports support a war economy. In the current situation, we can no longer allow ourselves to powder metallic raw materials for, among other things, far too many, far too large and far too heavy cars," says Michael Reckordt of PowerShift.
Press contacts
Michael Reckordt, michael.reckordt@power-shift.de, 0163 633 63 72
Vanessa Fischer, vanessa.fischer@power-shift.de, 0157 547 68413
