Norilsk Nickel (Asia) Ltd has moved all its businesses handled in Hong Kong to Shanghai and the company’s cross-border settlement business in Shanghai has increased eight times from before.
As a foreign-owned operating and selling platform in China, Norilsk’s trading model is mainly to purchase mining products from overseas groups.
In September 2020, the People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai Branch, on the basis of previous policy, and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce jointly issued the “Notice on the clarification of the free trade account to support the development of offshore economic and trade business in Shanghai”. The idea was to support financial institutions through the free trade account for offshore economic and trade business in providing international settlement, trade financing and other cross-border financial services.
ICBC Shanghai Branch recommended to the commerce commission that it include Norilsk on the “list of offshore economic and trade business enterprises”, and designed an offshore resale business based on free trade accounts for the company.
Last year, enterprises on Shanghai’s “offshore economic and trade business list” posted 11.482 billion yuan (US$1.77 billion) in revenue and expenditure through the free trade account for offshore resale and purchase.
February 26, 2021
