Tankers located in the waters near Ceuta, Spain are transferring crude oil from Russia to reach the Asian markets in spite of Western sanctions.
Europa Press News | Europa Press | Getty Images
Russia’s oil revenues rebounded in March and April to reach the highest level since November last year, according to a new report, bolstering President Vladimir Putin‘s ability to finance the Kremlin’s onslaught in Ukraine.
Analysis published Wednesday by the Centre for Research in Energy and Clean Air, an independent Finnish think tank, found that Russia’s revenues from oil exports have recovered from levels reached in January and February.
The findings show that Moscow has recently been able to successfully claw back earnings from fossil fuel exports despite the imposition late last year of import bans from the European Union and a broader G7 oil price cap.
It comes less than a week after G7 leaders said at the conclusion of the Hiroshima Summit in Japan that a price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products was working, Russian revenues were down and falling oil and gas prices were benefitting countries around the world.
This is a clear indication that the enforcement is not working.
Lauri Myllyvirta
Lead analyst at the Centre for Research in Energy and Clean Air
Energy analysts at CREA suggested the failure from the so-called Price Cap Coalition to revise price levels and enforce the policy had resulted in the measures “losing traction, integrity and credibility.”
“The EU has failed in its commitment to review the price cap every two months to ensure that it stays lower than the average market price,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at CREA and co-author of the report.
“This is a clear indication that the enforcement is not working,” he added.
A spokesperson for the European Union declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
Russia’s oil revenue recovery expected to continue
At the start of the year, data showed Russia’s revenue from fossil fuel exports had collapsed in December. It appeared to underscore the effectiveness of policymakers targeting Russia’s oil revenues and sparked calls for even tougher measures to help Kyiv prevail.
CREA’s latest findings, however, show that Russia’s oil tax revenues rose 6% month-on-month in April due to the increase of export revenues in March.
To be sure, the Kremlin’s revenues were significantly below levels recorded in April last year, when oil prices jumped.
The increase of export revenues in March resulted in a 5% month-on-month rebound in Russia’s mineral extraction tax receipts in April, the report said — and an even larger increase is expected in May.
It means that after bottoming out at the start of 2023, Russia’s oil tax revenues have since recovered due to increased sales.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the Supreme Court chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 22, 2023.
Mikhail Klimentyev | Afp | Getty Images
“The Kremlin’s tax revenue has closely followed prices for Russian crude oil, highlighting the importance of the oil price cap. The state is also changing its tax regime to diminish the impact of the price cap,” said Isaac Levi, energy analyst at CREA.
“Unless the price cap coalition takes action to lower the price cap level and plug the enforcement gaps, changes to Russia’s oil taxation structure will force the price of Russian crude oil closer to international benchmarks, leading to further recovery of Russia’s oil revenue and wholesale failure of the price cap system,” he added.
CREA’s analysis said that since the EU’s import bans and the G7 price cap on Russian oil, Moscow has earned an estimated 58 billion euros ($62.5 billion) in export revenues from seaborne oil.
The majority of which was transported on European-insured or owned tankers, it added. Russia’s revenues could be slashed by a further 22 billion euros if the price cap for crude oil was reduced to $30 per barrel and price caps for oil products were revised accordingly, CREA said.
What is the aim of the price cap?
The G7, Australia and the EU implemented a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil on Dec. 5. It came alongside a move by the EU and U.K. to impose a ban on the seaborne import of Russian crude oil.
Together, the measures were thought to reflect by far the most significant step to curtail the fossil fuel export revenue that is funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In February, the Price Cap Coalition followed up its crude oil price cap by imposing a $100 per barrel price cap on Russian petroleum products such as diesel and a $45 per barrel cap on Russian petroleum products such as fuel oils that trade at a discount to crude.
The aim of the price cap policy is to restrict Russia’s oil revenues while maintaining the supply of Russian oil. The U.S. Treasury said in an update last week that nearly six months after the implementation of the price cap, the policy was achieving both goals.
The Treasury estimates that Russia’s oil revenues have fallen to just 23% of the Russian budget this year, down from 30% to 35% of the total Russian budget before Moscow launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The U.S. said this decline in revenue occurred at a time when Russia is exporting as much as 10% more crude oil in April 2023 when compared to March last year.
Bulldozer scoop soil containing various rare earth to be loaded on to a ship at a port in Lianyungang, east China’s Jiangsu province on September 5, 2010, for export to Japan.
Str | Afp | Getty Images
Japan has been quietly blazing a trail for supply chain resilience.
Long before China in early April imposed an export ban on several rare earth elements and magnets widely used in the automotive, robotics and defense sectors, Japan became something of a canary in the coal mine for Beijing’s mineral dominance.
The East Asian country was thrust into panic mode in 2010 when China implemented an export ban on rare earths that specifically targeted Tokyo following a heated territorial dispute.
The embargo only lasted for around two months, but it was enough to incentivize the world’s fourth-largest economy to change its approach to supply chain security.
Alongside stockpiling, recycling and promoting alternative technologies, Japan has since invested heavily into non-China rare-earth projects — notably Australia’s Lynas, the world’s largest rare earth producer outside of China.
As a result, Japan’s overall dependence on Chinese rare earths has dropped to below 60% from more than 90% at the time of the incident, according to data provided by Argus Media.
Jonathan Rowntree — CEO of Niron Magnetics, which produces rare earth-free permanent magnets — said the U.S.-based company was born a decade ago following the world’s first rare earth crisis that “had a particularly significant impact on Japan, albeit less so on the rest of the world.”
“Because of that, Japan’s actually much more prepared this time around than most other countries,” Rowntree told CNBC by email.
“They’ve stockpiled more, invested in Lynas, and secured Western rare earth supply to meet some of that demand through a combination of Lynas, the Australian mines, and their Malaysian processing facility,” he added.
Japan reportedly plans to further reduce its reliance on Chinese rare earth imports to below 50% this year. CNBC has reached out to the Japanese government for comment.
A worker prepares to tie up the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.’s (JOGMEC) marine resources research vessel, Hakurei, at a pier in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, March 21, 2012.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
China is the undisputed leader of the critical minerals supply chain, producing nearly 70% of the world’s supply of rare earths from mines and processing almost 90%, which means it is importing these materials from other countries and refining them.
Japan’s supply chain transformation is seen as both a template for Western nations — and a stark reminder of just how difficult it is to escape China’s critical mineral orbit.
Further to go?
Japan has enjoyed success through Lynas and its international supply chains by not only investing in rare earth mining but also in the facilities needed to process and refine the materials into usable goods, according to Nils Backeberg, founder and director at consultancy Project Blue.
Still, the country has a long way to go to cut its dependency on China in some key areas, Backeberg told CNBC. This is especially true for heavy rare earth elements, which are generally less abundant in the Earth’s crust, elevating their value.
The Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Australia, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. Lynas Rare Earths explores and mines for rare earth minerals such as cerium and neodymium.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Not a lot of heavy rare earths come out of Lynas, and most of the ones that do actually get sent to China for further refinement,” Backeberg said, adding that China’s latest export ban underscores Beijing’s importance in heavy rare earths.
But Lynas has continued to make progress in this area. Over the past month or so, the company has announced breakthroughs in two heavy rare earths, claiming to have produced them outside China for the first time.
‘A real problem’
China’s latest rare earth export curbs were implemented as part of a response to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s tariff increase on Beijing’s products.
“When the tariff war started and tariffs were put on China, the first thing that China did was say ‘we’re going to stop exporting rare earths.’ A few weeks later, we couldn’t manufacture a car in America or in Europe, so it is a real problem,” Eldur Olafsson, CEO of Greenland-focused mining company Amaroq, told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Thursday.
“No country in the Western world wants one country to corner the market,” Olafsson said.
Western auto industry groups have been hit particularly hard by the export curbs, with many increasingly concerned about production outages.
Ivan Espinosa, chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co., speaks during an interview at the company’s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The disruption also extended to Japanese automakers. Suzuki Motor suspended production of its popular Swift car model earlier this month, with local media attributing the step to China’s rare earth export restrictions. A Suzuki Motor spokesperson did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Meanwhile, Japanese car giant Nissan said it was exploring ways to minimize the impact of China’s export controls by working with Japan’s government and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
“We need to continue finding alternatives for the future, keeping flexibility and keeping our options open,” Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told CNBC earlier this month.
A push for alternatives
Looking ahead, Niron Magnetics’s Rowntree said an all-encompassing government and industry approach would be needed to tackle China’s mineral dominance, from accelerating permits for domestic mines to investing in new alternatives to provide sufficient magnet supplies.
“Everyone has seen that this supply bottleneck is an issue. We’ve all known for a long time that this could happen, but now it has actually happened,” Rowntree said.
“I think many customers share my view — that this issue is unlikely to disappear and that we need to have alternatives in the West to address it.”
Europe’s domestic production of rare earths is limited. Just like the U.S., the region heavily relies on imports, particularly from China, although plans are underway to develop domestic resources and processing capabilities.
For instance, Belgian chemical group Solvay, which operates the largest rare earths processing plant outside of China in La Rochelle, France, aims to supply 30% of Europe’s processed rare earths demand for permanent magnets by 2030.
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Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, said the U.S. and European Union will need to work together to create a market for non-Chinese rare earths.
“The West is creating a nascent rare earths industry outside of China at a time when prices are low and companies are grappling with profitability,” Baskaran told CNBC by email.
Tax credits and subsidies will be “essential” to ensure that non-Chinese projects can build and scale up, Baskaran said, noting that rare earths go into nearly every modern industry.
HOLMS Attachments has made it easier for heavy equipment fleets to electrify with a new sweeper attachment that’s equipped with its own power source, freeing it from the need for a mechanical or battery (e) PTO.
Commercial trucks do more than just move people and things from place to place – special implements like street sweepers, cherry pickers, and tow beds mean they do real work, as well. But the attachments, implements, and even utility bodies being upfitted onto these trucks were largely developed for diesel platforms. They typically get juice from hydraulics or other power take-off (PTO) systems that typically take the form of a splined drive shaft powered directly by the ICE.
BEVs work differently, and have to draw on their battery power to operate these tools. That takes away which takes away from both the range and performance of the EVs in question. Adding to the complexity, some of these attachments are still mechanically driven, requiring an electrically-driven spline shaft, or “ePTO” to operate.
The new eSL Electric Sweeper attachment from HOLMS aims to solve for all that new complexity that’s emerging as electric equipment becomes more commonplace.
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“Electric equipment in general has taken a lot of different directions,” said Dan Snedecor, President and General Manager of HOLMS Attachments. “We realized, let’s not use the power from the machine, because keeping up with that will be even harder than keeping up with the different style hooks and hydraulic systems.”
Developed for the electric equipment needs of the near future, HOLMS’ eSL optimizes the uptime of your electric vehicle or equipment asset so you can complete more tasks between charging sessions.
“Our theory is this will be kind of like an electric drill that we all have at home, where you leave it plugged in until you need it. You go out, you use it, and then you put it back on the charger when you’re done,” Snedecor told Equipment Journal. “The real benefit of that will be the end users don’t need machines that have extra hydraulic functions necessarily.”
The prototype sweeper is controlled from the cab of the wheel loader via Bluetooth and is equipped with a 10 kWh, 48V li-ion battery pack that’s good for three-and-a-half hours of runtime on a single charge. HOLMS says the sweeper’s battery can be recharged in about 90 minutes.
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We’ve been big fans of highly capable LSVs for a while here on Electrek, and the newest Cushman Hauler XL ELiTE electric utility vehicle keeps that trend alive with an extra-long, 68.5″ aluminum bed for even more cargo-hauling capability.
The Cushman Hauler XL ELiTE’s truck-like layout, functional dash, and familiar, car-like controls make it easier to operate than an ATV with a trailer, while its 1,200 lb. bed load capacity and 1,600-pound payload capacity (plus 1,500 lb. towing capacity) beat the pants off the classic, 00’s-era Ford Ranger pickup’s 1,140 lb. payload capacity.
The Cushman’s flatbed can be upgraded to add steel drop sides, an aluminum box bed (shown, above) and other custom upfit solutions that enable fleet operators to perfectly tailor the Hauler’s capabilities to their specific needs.
You already know how to drive it
The Hauler XL features a “twin pack” of two 56.7V, 4.2 kWh ELiTE lithium-ion batteries (8.4 kWh total) developed by Samsung SDI. The batteries are expected to be good for between four to eight hours of operation, depending on load, and are backed by a 5-year battery warranty.
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What’s more, the newest Cushman features a technology that’s commonplace in cars and trucks, but still incredibly rare in the world of UTVs: regenerative braking.
“The Hauler XL … is an industry leader in bed size, vehicle rating and bed load capacity,” says Adam Harris, vice president and general manager of Cushman and E-Z-GO. “With our five-year battery warranty and patented E-brake technology, it’s built for the most difficult jobs.”
Cushman lists the Hauler XL’s manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) at $19,989, but dealers are advertising new ones for as low as $17,398. For that money you get a day’s worth of silent, emissions-free operation and the previously-mentioned 1,200 lb. bed capacity.
Electrek’s Take
Hauler XL ELiTE; via Cushman.
Every smart fleet manager eventually asks themselves whether they need a pickup, or a payload. When they ask that question, they’re usually trying to decide between something like a Ford Maverick and an F-150, but with vehicles like the Hauler XL ELiTE, Club Car Urban UTV, or the latest weird thing Micah Toll dredged up on Alibaba, you get the bed and the payload capacity – and you get them both for $20-30,000 less than a conventional pickup.
Your personalized home solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. The best part? You won’t get a single phone call until after you’ve elected to move forward.Get started, hassle-free, by clicking here.
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