Dynamics of export-import operations in the Russian chemical industry: current state of affairs on the threshold of geopolitical shifts

The chemical industry in Russia is of great importance for industrial production, agriculture and the consumer sector. This industry in the Russian Federation has a rather low share in GDP (less than 2%), and produces goods with relatively low added value: mineral fertilizers, nitrogen compounds, plastics, synthetic resins and rubbers. The chemical industry is characterized by imports consistently prevailing over exports. Thus, for 2013-2020 average excess of imports over exports in value terms was 62.6% or 16.3 billion US dollars. Mineral fertilizers occupy a key share (44.1%) in the structure of chemical exports, producing revenues of about 64.2 billion US dollars over eight years. While the bulk of imports fell on pharmaceutical products (39.2%) with a total volume of purchases amounting to 91.2 billion US dollars. Significant reduction in the average cost of an export ton of chemical products by 40% to 324 US dollars became a negative trend in foreign trade. The aim of the work is to identify key trends in foreign trade in Russian chemical industry products, which will become an information and analytical base to work out and adopt strategic decisions aimed at the development of the industry based on the principles of import substitution and deepening processing. The object is the relations that arise between the Russian Federation and foreign countries regarding export and import of chemical products. We use methods such as comparative, dynamic and specific weight analysis, and systematization. The information base includes data from the Federal Customs Service on export-import activities of the Russian chemical industry; Russian and foreign literature on the functioning of the industry under sanctions; data from information, news and analytical agencies.