Russia asks to limit parallel imports of foreign fire safety systems

More and more Russian equipment manufacturers are asking the authorities to limit the supply of competing foreign solutions. Following electronics vendors, suppliers of fire safety systems turned to the Ministry of Industry and Trade with such an idea. Market participants claim that equipment from well-known European and American manufacturers is actively imported by construction contractors. But, domestic vendors emphasize, the use of Western systems carries risks due to the lack of technical support. Builders also emphasize that the rejection of imported solutions will worsen the image of premium facilities, reduce competition and lead to an increase in the price of Russian counterparts.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the letter of the consortium “Manufacturers of security, fire, ACS security systems” (ANO “Consortium POPSB”, unites security system suppliers Tenzor, Rubezh, Pozhtekhnika, etc.) from Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak dated 17 May. The document proposes to limit the parallel import of foreign fire and security systems produced by companies that have left the Russian market.

The list of goods for parallel import maintained by the ministry includes equipment from Autronica, Schneider Electric, Eaton, but their use poses a risk to the security of residential and office buildings, the ANO believes. Components of security systems, in particular, smoke and flame detectors of foreign brands, are not supported by manufacturers, and they cannot be replaced with Russian-made equipment, because the connection protocols are incompatible, the letter says. In addition, the document notes, a number of construction companies import into the Russian Federation systems of other well-known Western European and American manufacturers that have stopped working in the country and also do not support equipment, but are not included in the list of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry and the Ministry of Emergency Situations did not respond to a request.

The problem is also that the software of foreign electronics does not work in the Russian Federation, and fire systems do not fulfill their tasks, a Kommersant source in one of the Russian manufacturers clarifies: “Regulators should develop a mechanism for tracking and preventing the use of such products at facilities.” He argues that the choice of Western systems is explained “not by quality, but by the margin, which is higher for foreign equipment.”

This is not the first time that the idea of ​​restricting imports, which is already difficult to manage, has arisen. In particular, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, together with Russian manufacturers, is considering the possibility of restricting parallel imports of products from more than 20 foreign electronics brands, including Acer, IBM, Dell and others (see Kommersant of June 2).

The choice of a security system occurs at the design stage of a building, while there is no standard at the state level, notes Stanislav Mityushin, chairman of the board of the interregional public association Guild of Gas Equipment Engineers: who decided to stop deliveries to our country.” Mr. Mityushin admits that “there are indeed a number of Russian and Asian analogues of security systems on the market.” However, in his opinion, “it is worth not to prohibit parallel imports, but to introduce the priority use of Russian products.”

For buildings in the “business” and “premium” segments, equipment lines that are supplied by parallel imports “emphasize the class of the project,” explains Elena Mironova, Director of the Estimated Pricing Department at Granel Group of Companies: “The lack of quality brands in this area can affect the image of objects” . According to her, Russian counterparts are also objectively “inferior to foreign ones in terms of consumer characteristics.” According to Alexey Kursin, Pridex partner, on new projects, customers often switch to Russian equipment “even to the detriment of the functionality of the systems being designed.” At the same time, the expert is sure, “any reduction in competition will inevitably affect the pricing policy of the remaining suppliers.”

Timofei Kornev, Alexandra Mertsalova