New Deadline for Export Ban on Black and Colored Metals to EAEU and Third Countries

The newspaper "Patsat" reports that the Ministry of Economy has put forward a draft decision regarding the "temporary ban on the export of certain goods from the Republic of Armenia to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and to third countries." In the absence of effective deposits of black metals in Armenia (as well as the production of metallic copper), Armenian metal processing companies use local scrap and waste metal as raw materials.

Ensuring black and colored metals scrap and waste is of critical importance for Armenia’s metallurgical and metal processing industries to secure their raw material supply. As products from black and colored metals are strategic for Armenia, they hold significant importance for the country's defense capability and state security. Therefore, ensuring these metals for Armenian metallurgical and metal processing enterprises is essential for producing final products from black and colored metals.

Recent years have shown that using imported black and colored metal scrap or semifinished products as raw material is economically unfeasible due to high prices, lack of direct railway transport delivery options, and substantial logistics costs. The final products produced by local enterprises from imported raw materials become uncompetitive in the local market due to their high production costs.

Due to the high prices established in the EAEU market in recent years, there has been an intensive export process of black and colored metal scrap from Armenia. Without regulation of these processes, dozens of local metallurgical and metal processing companies (as well as those producing cables and wires) will be forced to use exclusively imported metal scrap or semifinished products as raw materials.

Moreover, emphasizing the issue of supplying local metallurgical companies with metal raw materials, several EAEU member countries have also banned or restricted the export of black and colored metals (including to EAEU countries). According to Government Decision No. 2269-N, the export of black and colored metal scrap and waste, as well as certain products made from them, has been banned for a period of 6 months.

According to the ministry, as a result of the export ban, there has been a significant increase in the volume of local production, and investments have been made in the sector from 2022 to 2024. Therefore, it is proposed to set a new deadline for the export ban on black and colored metals, which will be in effect from July 30, 2024, to January 30, 2025.