Not all is gold that rings – Newspaper Kommersant No. 64 (7509) dated 04/13/2023
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Apple has officially abandoned tungsten, tantalum and gold from the Russian Federation. At the same time, South Korean Samsung continues to use Russian metals, despite the refusal to supply electronics to the country. A source close to one of the plants clarifies that in any case, Apple and Samsung metals are not directly supplied – Kazakhstan has become the main official export destination. Experts note that re-export also goes through India and China. They doubt that even the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, declaring a complete break with the Russian Federation, will abandon its rare and precious metals due to the lack of alternatives comparable in price.
Kommersant got acquainted with the reports on the use of precious metals by the two largest smartphone manufacturers Apple and Samsung, published in March 2023 following the results of 2022. From the reporting of the American company it follows that Apple refused to use tungsten, tantalum and gold from Russian enterprises “at the request of the US government.” At the same time, the document admits that the company still receives tungsten from the Moliren plant in the Moscow region.
Another major electronics manufacturer, South Korean Samsung, does not refuse Russian metals. It follows from the company’s reporting that Samsung uses tantalum, tungsten and gold from Hydrometallurg (CJSC Wolfram Company), Molirena (Spetssplav-service), Unechsky Plant of Refractory Metals (UZTM), Solikamsk Magnesium Plant ( SMZ), Novosibirsk Refinery, Uralelectromed (part of UMMC), Moscow Plant for the Processing of Special Alloys (MZSS) and Krastsvetmet. The listed enterprises did not answer “Kommersant”.
After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, many foreign companies limited supplies to the Russian Federation, including Apple and Samsung. In September, Kommersant found out that purchases of Russian raw materials by foreign technology companies had also fallen by more than 70% (see Kommersant dated September 22, 2022). As the interlocutors of Kommersant explained at the time, they are mainly talking about metals, which are used for the production of semiconductors and microcircuits.
A source close to SMZ explained that the company has never interacted directly with Samsung and Apple: “SMZ’s main partner for tantalum, and we are talking about its oxide, that is, a substance in powder form, is the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan. Previously, products were also supplied to Germany and Austria, but now, for obvious reasons, this is not possible.” Earlier, the general director of the plant, Ruslan Dimukhamedov, said that tantalum oxide is sent to Kazakhstan, which is processed into metal and re-exported to the Russian Federation.
According to Sergey Grishunin, managing director of the NRA rating service, deliveries of tungsten concentrate to the United States from Russia in 2021 amounted to about $3 million in monetary terms and occupied about 3.5% of the market for this metal. “Apple could replace supplies from the Russian Federation, for example, at the expense of China, which, in turn, can use Russian concentrates for metal production,” the expert admits.
According to Mr. Grishunin, Russian enterprises supplied about 200 tons of tungsten and less than 10 tons of gold per year to the United States, now these volumes can be compensated by Chinese and Indian producers: “In general, we can say that if the Americans refuse to buy metal in Russia, then they they just sell metal from another country, which buys it from the Russian Federation.”
Apple does not have its own production of devices, the company’s largest contract partner is Foxconn, followed by Quanta, Compal, Flextronics and Inventec, explains Oleg Izumrudov, executive director of the Consortium of Russian Storage System Developers. According to him, the main buyers of Russian metals now are Chinese companies, which later resell the raw materials to various factories.
The expert believes that, despite the official refusal of Apple from Russian raw materials, the company will continue to use materials from domestic enterprises, since “it is difficult to find an alternative comparable in price.” Samsung, on the other hand, having its own production, buys materials directly from Russian suppliers and will continue to do so for the same reason there is no alternative, especially for rare earth elements and refractory metals.
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