China has increased supplies of high-precision machine tools to Russia’s military-industrial complex 10 times, - The Financial Times
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Chinese supplies of modern machine tools to Russia have increased 10-fold, and now dominate the trade in high-precision computer numerical control devices that are vital to the Russian military industry.
This is reported by The Financial Times, Censor.NET with reference to UNIAN.
The sharp increase in the supply of modern machines that allow for extremely precise milling of metal has worried Ukraine's allies, who are trying to limit Russia's access to this equipment.
According to Russian customs, in July, Chinese manufacturers shipped $68 million worth of equipment, although this figure was $6.5 million in February 2022.
Russia's imports of CNC tools from the EU have fallen sharply due to tighter restrictions since February 2022. Analysts believe that Moscow is seeking to obtain CNC tools from sources that are not subject to international control.
Customs declarations show that in July, CNC devices of Chinese origin accounted for 57% of Russian imports by value, while before the war this figure was only 12%. In addition, Russia imports significant volumes of CNC tools made in Taiwan and South Korea.
In November, the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on all major Russian importers of CNC tools, including those who have moved less than $200,000 worth of equipment since the invasion last February. Chinese companies that continue to trade with Russian importers now risk being hit with US sanctions that will jeopardize their ability to trade in other markets.
Beijing insists that it does not supply lethal weapons to Moscow and denies supporting Russia's military actions, but it also rejects the use of sanctions. Chinese supplies of goods, including oil, equipment, consumer goods, and cars, help support the sanctions-hit Russian economy. In October, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian leader Vladimir Putin that annual trade between the two countries had reached a "historic high" of nearly $200 billion.
Allen Maggard, an analyst at c4ads, a Washington-based conflict analysis organization, says that CNC machines can "rapidly produce complex components from metal and other rigid materials with a consistent degree of precision and accuracy." These qualities make such machines valuable for defense production. In addition, they are often bulky equipment, making them more difficult to smuggle into Russia from the West than smaller components such as microchips.
An analysis of export documents shows that some major manufacturers have close ties to the People's Liberation Army of China.
How Russia uses the Chinese CNC devices it has imported is unclear. Perhaps Russian defense plants are only "beginning to use Chinese CNC machines"
