With Western sanctions squeezing Russia\u2019s access to manufacturing equipment, the country\u2019s defence industry increasingly turns to an unlikely source \u2013 decommissioned machinery from China.<\/p>\n
According to trade data and corporate records, several Russian firms involved in the military-industrial complex have drastically ramped up their purchases of used machine tools and factory equipment from Chinese suppliers over the past year.<\/p>\n
One such company is AMG, a major manufacturer of components for the Russian aerospace and defence sectors. Before the sanctions, AMG sourced most of its computer numerical control (CNC) lathes and milling machines from Japan\u2019s Tsugami Corporation. But in 2022, Tsugami halted all sales to Russia to comply with sanctions.<\/p>\n
AMG has pivoted to buying decommissioned and secondhand equipment from Chinese factories and machining companies to fill the gap. Records show AMG\u2019s purchases from Chinese suppliers have skyrocketed from around $600,000 in 2021 to over $50 million so far this year.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s turn toward China for industrial machinery underscores how sanctions are squeezing Moscow\u2019s ability to source vital manufacturing equipment and components from Western suppliers. It also highlights China\u2019s role as a potential sanction-circumvention route for Russian defence companies.<\/p>\n
U.S. and European officials have repeatedly warned China about the risks of violating sanctions by assisting Russia\u2019s military-industrial base. So far, Beijing has walked a careful line \u2013 criticizing the sanctions while urging a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.<\/p>\n
However, trade data suggests the flow of secondhand industrial equipment from China to Russia is escalating rapidly. Chinese exports of metalworking machinery to Russia more than tripled in value last year compared to 2021, reaching $274 million, according to customs data.<\/p>\n
The Russian government and major defence firms did not respond to requests for comment. Chinese trade officials acknowledged the machinery exports but insisted they were not intended for military purposes. Some Chinese suppliers admitted the surge in demand from Russian buyers was lucrative.<\/p>\n
For Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex, access to secondhand machinery from China may help mitigate \u2013 but not entirely offset \u2013 the technology squeeze from Western sanctions. But the real challenge, experts say, is replenishing its depleted stocks of semiconductors, precision components, and other specialized inputs that keep weapons production humming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia\u2019s turn toward China for industrial machinery underscores how sanctions are squeezing Moscow\u2019s ability to source vital manufacturing equipment and components from Western suppliers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":20267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11851,443,175,5613,268,78,11852,215,279],"class_list":["post-20266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","tag-amg","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-european","tag-japan","tag-russia","tag-tsugami","tag-ukraine","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}