Trelleborg admits lack of clarity over Russia deliveries

Trelleborg, Sweden – Trelleborg has responded to a Swedish newspaper report that the group had – contrary to its own information – continued supplying tires and other products to Russia after the imposition of EU sanctions.

Citing Russian customs data, the Dagens Industri report said that in late 2022, Trelleborg had made sizable deliveries to a Russian logistics company serving Russian state-owned operations including the defence industry.

The Swedish rubber-based products manufactured had previously issued strong denials that it had made any such deliveries, according to the media outlet.

Apparently now accepting the accuracy of such reports, Trelleborg supplied the following statement 13 Oct to ERJ:

“Following the invasion of Ukraine, Trelleborg made a swift decision to terminate all our operations in Russia and Belarus.

“We aimed to do so in an efficient, coherent, and responsible way, while also securing the safety of our employees in Russia. When we made these decisions, we had deliveries in transit that cleared Russian customs after our decision.

“At that time, we also had a few long-standing projects for which we had received advance payments but had not been completed. These products were not subject to any sanctions, meaning they were basic products such as fenders and bollards used for ship docking in civilian ports.

“We always conduct a thorough check for all deliveries destined for countries listed on sanctions lists (EU/US/UN). In this case, we also sought advice from external legal expertise to see if it was possible to halt final deliveries. The assessment was that we were legally bound to complete the deliveries for these few advance-paid projects.

“However, the above was not sufficiently clear in the press release we issued in April 2022, which we, of course, regret in hindsight.”