About 40 companies export to Russia, destination of the first virtual trade mission of the year
Almost 40 Cantabrian companies currently sell their products and services in the Russian market, a commercial presence that is intended to increase with the virtual mission to Russia organized by the Ministry of Industry, through SODERCAN, with the collaboration of the Chamber of Commerce of Cantabria .
It will be held next week, from April 26 to 30, with the participation of eight SMEs in the region, together with the support that SODERCAN has already provided to Equipos Nucleares (ENSA) and Foramen and which will materialize in the coming months.
This call offers participating companies individual work agendas for holding multisectoral virtual meetings with potential customers or importers from Russia, designed by the Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of Spain in Moscow according to the preferences of the companies and the customer profile in the country.
This Friday the previous meeting with the Moscow Commercial Office and the participating companies was held. The CEO of SODERCAN, Rafael Pérez Tezanos, has expressed his satisfaction with the interest that this virtual mission to Russia has aroused among Cantabrian SMEs, to which 15 companies initially registered, of which the Moscow Commercial Office has selected the eight that can best fit in the Russian market.
The participation of three companies of the Cantabria Nuclear Industry Cluster stands out, such as Atecsol, Newtesol and Consulting Informática CIC -more ENSA-, as well as important firms from other sectors of activity such as Leading Metal Mecanic Solutions and Ecrimesa, Sayme, Global Lift Equipment and Casalfe.
The head of SODERCAN has pointed out that for Cantabria, Russia is presented as an important market, largely still new for the vast majority, as well as complex, but in which “there is a lot of space to explore and many business opportunities for companies. Cantabrian companies ”.
With sustained growth since 2018, the sectors of opportunity in Russia “fit well with our potential as a region”, highlighting the energy sector in general, machinery, metalworking sector and consumer goods.
About Russia
Russia is a particularly interesting market for exports due to its population volume – 140 million people – and its strategic and geopolitical importance, since it represents the gateway to a potential market that could reach 180 million consumers.
The standard of living in Russia varies greatly depending on the area. In large cities (Moscow and Saint Petersburg and the 13 that have more than one million inhabitants) there is a significant percentage of the population with medium or medium-high purchasing power who can purchase -and generally prefer- imported products, usually at prices much higher than those of Western European countries.
The nuclear sector is one of Russia’s niche opportunities, which already has 38 nuclear reactors in operation after the commissioning of unit 6 at the Leningrad plant, the largest in the country. With an installed capacity of 4,400 MW, it is the largest power plant in the north-west of the country, covering more than 55% of the energy needs of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region and constituting 30% of electricity generation in north-western Russia. .
Opportunities for Spanish companies come mainly from the Construction Plan launched by ROSATOM (Russian public company in the nuclear sector) in other countries such as Finland, Turkey, Uzbekistan, etc. and in the longer-term possibilities that are developed in the projects that Rosatom carries out in Latin America due to the cultural and language ties that can favorably position the interests of Spanish companies in the supply chain of the nuclear sector.
The main sectors of opportunity for Spanish companies also include consumer goods and agri-food, along with the energy sector, which concentrates a very high percentage of investment, with projects to increase its extractive and distribution capacity. The energy plan until 2020 estimated investments of 230,000 million dollars in crude oil and 80,000 in gas.
Other sectors of opportunity are machinery and equipment for the food, textile and wood treatment industries, and capital goods in general; health services, due to the deficiencies of the Russian health infrastructure; and railway and metro infrastructure in Moscow. The government has prioritized the improvement of commuter trains and Moscow continues to expand its metro network to cover the entire region.
The virtual trade mission to Russia is the first of those foreseen in the collaboration agreement that SODERCAN signs annually with the Cantabrian Chamber of Commerce to promote the internationalization of Cantabrian companies. This year’s program includes several work sessions and other destinations such as Australia, the United States, Saudi Arabia-Qatar, Mexico and Turkey, among other actions.
