Belarusian exchange offers Russian metal producers platform for supplies to Belarus, third countries

MINSK. June 22 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) has offered Russian metal producers its platform for supplies to Belarus and to third countries, the exchange's press service said.

"It's no secret that sanctions have significantly narrowed the geography of exports for Russian metal products, so one of the most urgent issues on the agenda is to reorient export shipments to other markets. Using an exchange platform as an additional sales channel can help solve this problem," BUCE head of metals trading Yevgeny Bureiko was quoted as saying by the press service.

"And we are not just talking about the market of Belarus, which annually uses almost 3 million tonnes of metal. We are prepared to offer Russian exporters direct access to consumers from countries in the CIS, Asia and Africa through a mechanism of transit transactions, and this is a completely different scale of demand," Bureiko said.

He also said that exchange trading is typically low-risk thanks to "delivery versus payment" settlements.

"The main plus for Russian companies is that they can sell metal with deferred payment and be confident that payment will arrive in their account at the agreed time. In turn, Belarusian buyers essentially get a free commodity credit. The exchange in this case acts as a guarantor that the parties of the transaction meet obligations," Bureiko said.

Transactions with metal products on the BUCE increased by 12% year-on-year to 889 million Belarusian rubles (about $350 million) in the first five months 2022. Ferrous metals and their products made up more than 77% of total metals trading volume.