Crisis for Russia’s Asbestos Producers?
As recently as 2020, Russia was the world’s leading supplier of asbestos, accounting for 65% of global output.1 A mere three years later this figure had fallen to 48% with Russian producers facing falling demand and increasing competition from Kazakhstan, China and Brazil.2 In the December 2024 newsletter produced by Uralasbest, Russia’s second biggest asbestos conglomerate, its General Director Yuri Alekseevich Kozlov explained that amongst the challenges the company faced in 2024 were bureaucratic hurdles and logistical obstructions – i.e. persistent and continuing disruptions to asbestos cargo rail shipments.3 What Kozlov failed to mention, however, was the progress being achieved by “anti-asbestos campaigns in Western Europe and USA [which] have significantly reduced the possibility of exporting chrysotile asbestos…[and created] the crisis faced by asbestos-producing businesses.”4
The Russian authors of the paper Chrysotile asbestos: current status and development prospects in the mining and processing industry were more forthcoming in the article they published in October 2024:
“The global asbestos industry is going through a period of turbulence and transformation; significant risks affecting the chrysotile industry in recent decades are the anti-asbestos campaign, which has been going on for more than 40 years; instability of the global economy and sanctions; a decrease in the consumption of chrysotile asbestos, leading to a reduction in sales markets; the emergence of alternative materials replacing chrysotile-containing products; as well as the fierce competition of the industry for sales markets, etc.”5
With decreasing asbestos demand at home – asbestos consumption in Russia fell from ~650,000 tonnes/t in 1995 to ~110,000t in 2023 (-83%) – the vast majority of Russian asbestos is destined for export to countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.6 Disruption of asbestos supply lines, no doubt exacerbated by sanctions imposed on Russian exporters in retaliation for the country’s war on Ukraine, has certainly adversely affected companies like Uralasbest and Orenburg Minerals, Russia’s largest asbestos producer.
To counter “negative external factors,” asbestos conglomerates are diversifying production, acquiring companies that manufacture asbestos-cement building material, automating industrial and business processes and continuing to pressurize international agencies and national governments to preserve the status quo, one in which the trade and use of chrysotile asbestos remains unrestricted.
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No matter how hard they paddle, asbestos profiteers in Russia and elsewhere are on the wrong side of history. The only question is how many more people will have to die before their industry of mass destruction is outlawed.
January 14, 2025
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1 United States Geological Survey. Minerals Yearbook – The Mineral Industry of Russia 2020-2021. December 2024.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol3/2020-21/myb3-2020-21-russia.pdf
2 According to Russian sources, in 2023, global chrysotile asbestos output was 1.248 million tons with the biggest producers: Uralasbest, Russia (19%), Orenburg Minerals, Russia (28%); Kostanay Minerals, Kazakhstan (20%); Qinghai Chuang Co., Ltd. and others, China (17%); Sama-Eternit, Brazil (16%).
3 Uralasbest. December Uralasbest Newsletter. Issue 12, 2024.
https://www.uralasbest.ru/assets/dok/gazeta/2024/12.pdf
4 Shayakhmetova, R. A., Mukhametzhanova, A.A., et al. Magnesium and silicon recovery from chrysotile asbestos waste of the deposit Zhitikara, Kazakhstan. December 30, 2024.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-83239-0
5 Punenkov, S.E., et al. Хризотил-асбест: современное состояние и перспективы развития в горно-обогатительной промышленности [Chrysotile asbestos: current status and development prospects in the mining and processing industry]. October 1, 2024.
https://www.vnedra.ru/obzor-rynka/sovremennoe-sostoyanie-i-perspektivy-razvitiya-hrizotil-asbestovoj-gorno-obogatitelnoj-promyshlennosti-26002/
6 Kazan-Allen, L. Russia’s Asbestos Cash Cow under Threat? August 13, 2024.
http://ibasecretariat.org/lka-russia-s-asbestos-cash-cow-under-threat.php
