Apple refused tungsten and gold from the Russian Federation “at the request of the US authorities”

Apple has officially phased out tungsten, tantalum and gold from Russia “at the request of the US government.” It is reported by “Kommersant” with reference to the reporting. At the same time, the document states that the company still receives tungsten from the Moliren plant in the Moscow region.

At the same time, the South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung continues to use Russian metals, despite the refusal to supply its products to the country.

According to RBC, a source close to the Solikamsk magnesium plant said that the company did not interact directly with Samsung and Apple. So, the main partner of the plant for tantalum is the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan.

The general director of the plant, Ruslan Dimukhamedov, said earlier that tantalum oxide is sent to a neighboring country, which is processed into metal and re-exported to Russia.

“In general, we can say that if the Americans refuse to buy metal in Russia, then they are simply sold metal from another country that buys it from Russia,” stressed Sergey Grishunin, managing director of the NRA rating service.

Previously, Russian enterprises supplied the United States with about 200 tons of tungsten and less than 10 tons of gold per year, but now, according to Grishunin, these volumes can be compensated by Chinese and Indian producers.

Last spring, Apple stopped deliveries and sales of its equipment in Russia. At the same time, Samsung announced the suspension of the supply of smartphones to Russia. Bloomberg wrote that this applies to a wide range of products, ranging from chips to smartphones and consumer electronics. At the same time, the company did not talk about a complete withdrawal from the Russian market.

The Russian government allowed the import of foreign goods into the country through parallel imports.