Heating systems overheated – Newspaper Kommersant No. 192 (7393) of 10/17/2022

Last year’s transfer to Gosstroynadzor of control over the quality of construction equipment, including heating systems, did not produce results. The level of counterfeit products on the market, in particular, imported from abroad, has increased significantly, manufacturers assure. They are asking the Ministry of Industry and Trade to return control over the quality of radiators and convectors to Rosstandart. But experts believe that in this way Russian companies are trying to oust foreign competitors from the domestic market.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the letter dated October 12, where the Eurasian Association of the Heating Systems Market (EURAROS) asks Vyacheslav Burmistrov, Director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Technical Regulation, Standardization and Ensuring the Uniformity of Measurements of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, to include radiators and heat convectors in the list of construction products subject to new technical regulation . These control rules are laid down in the draft law, which is now being considered by the relevant ministries. The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Kommersant that the letter was under consideration.

Until the summer of 2021, the quality of construction products was controlled by Rosstandart, but then the State Duma adopted a number of amendments to the legislation, which made it possible to transfer this function to the regional bodies of the State Construction Supervision Authority. But this did not give results: low-quality raw materials continue to enter the market. According to Alexander Ruchiev, president of the Osnova group of companies, the share of counterfeit building materials on the market has reached 20-25%. A year later, the Ministry of Construction proposed return these powers to Rosstandart, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a corresponding bill (see Kommersant of July 15).

The same applies to heating equipment. According to EURAROS CEO Igor Prudnikov, until July 2021, Rosstandart could withdraw entire batches of counterfeit goods from circulation, but after the change in legislation, no one else has such rights. Now for heating equipment, mandatory certification of conformity is provided, but this does not help clear the market of low-quality products, since a certificate can be bought, he says. The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Kommersant that such equipment should be included in the list of products subject to mandatory control by Rosstandart.

The use of counterfeit threatens with additional costs for management companies and owners of facilities, since such equipment is short-lived, notes Alexander Ruchev. When switching to certified products, developers will be forced to increase their costs, but this will reduce the risk of equipment failure and accidents, adds Vladislav Tkachenko, expert of the commission on the building materials industry and technologies of the public council under the Ministry of Construction.

Igor Prudnikov claims that a large volume of low-quality products comes from abroad, in particular from Asian countries, and imports are growing every year. For example, in January-September 2022, the import of radiators into the country almost doubled year-on-year in value terms. But a Kommersant source on the market believes that Russian manufacturers are losing market share due to imports and are trying to reduce competition from foreign manufacturers.

EURAROS states in its letter that in the original version of the draft law, radiators and convectors were included in the list of construction products subject to state supervision, but in the current version of the document only building materials remain. The Association requests that the wording “construction materials and products” be used.

When the wording “construction materials and products” appears in the bill, its regulation by Rosstandart will apply to a fairly extensive list of resources related to the construction industry, Dmitry Galantsev, managing partner of the Propositum Law Office, warns. But, Hussein Pliyev, CEO of Smart Engineers, insists, depriving the State Construction Supervision Authority of control functions over the process of assembling products directly on the site will only lead to a decrease in the quality of construction.

Daria Andrianova