Czech companies fear further decrease in export to Russia

In relation to the EU sanctions against Russia, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, in agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has organized an anonymous survey among the Czech companies in the second half of January to assess the impact that the contemporaneous market development in Russia could have on the Czech companies‘ export and business.

The survey has shown that almost sixty percent of the respondents have registered a drop in demand from Russia leading to a decrease or loss of the old contracts and a stop of the new contracts that have been prepared for a long time.

Fifty percent of the respondents  have admitted that the solvency of their Russian partners had deteriorated.

Czech companies are afraid that it will be extremely difficult to gain new contracts and they await a new drop in demand from Russia. Nevertheless, 99 precent of them don’t consider to leave the Russian market and, on the contrary, they want to increase their import to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The total share of Czech companies‘ exports to Russia declined to 2,8 percent last November, compared with 3,6 in July 2014.

The EU sanctions against Russia and the devaluation of the Russian rouble have caused that, today, the Russian market prefers domestic production and that the tenders for imported products have been cancelled.