Trade between Russia and China, which became a key pillar of the Russian economy under Western sanctions, began to decline in 2025 for the first time since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
From January to November, China cut purchases of Russian crude oil by 7.6% to 91.5 million tonnes. In value terms, exports fell by 20% due to lower prices and larger discounts.<\/p>\n
Imports of Russian petroleum products declined by 3% for light distillates and by 33% for heavy distillates. In monetary terms, shipments dropped by 33% and 40%, respectively.<\/p>\n
Russian coal exports to China fell by 11% in volume terms to 72.4 million tonnes. Timber supplies decreased by 10% in physical terms and by 8.7% in value. Purchases of ferrous metals collapsed by 63% to 245,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n
Despite a 12% increase in liquefied natural gas exports to China in physical terms, their value fell by 1.8%.<\/p>\n
In addition, for the first time since the war began, shipments of Chinese goods to Russia also declined\u2014by 11.8% to $91.7 billion. Imports of Chinese vehicles were cut in half.<\/p>\n
In the first year of the war, Russia\u2013China trade grew by 30%, and by another 30% in 2023. In 2024, growth slowed to 2%, while in 2025 a downturn began. As a result, Russia\u2019s share in China\u2019s exports fell from 3.2% to 2.7%, pushing Russia down to ninth place among China\u2019s largest buyers.<\/p>\n
The contraction in trade continues despite appeals by Russian President Vladimir Putin, voiced during his four-day visit to Beijing in August.<\/p>\n
Analysts note that a 1% decline in aggregate demand in China reduces Russia\u2019s GDP by 0.1%, while a 30% drop in Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil would lead to a 1.6% contraction of the Russian economy.<\/p>\n
Thus, despite Kremlin statements about a \u201cstrategic partnership without limits\u201d with China, experts stress that the relationship remains deeply asymmetric. For Russia, China is a key market for raw materials\u2014primarily oil and gas\u2014whereas for China, Russia remains a relatively small export market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":150941,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-150940","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/150940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=150940"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=150940"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=150940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}