The Russian Chemical Industry amid the Pandemic: The Soviet Legacy Helps Survive the Crisis, Will it Help the Future Development?

Abstract

Based on a series of in-depth interviews with industry representatives and data from international and domestic statistics, the study examines the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Russian chemical industry. Contrary to experts’ expectations of serious consequences for the industry during and after the crisis, the research results show that most enterprises of the chemical industry managed to survive the crisis without serious losses. This is primarily due to the specifics of the organization of the industry, based on the predominance of large vertically integrated enterprises, working at once in several segments of the industry. However even the medium-scale enterprises managed to survive the crisis without any problems due to their flexible relations with the suppliers and purchasers. Although the current organization of the chemical industry helped enterprises to survive the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the long term it presents challenges to the industry, which are related to the need of increasing the competitiveness and added value in their products.