According to the British news agency, Oleum Biysk factory (BOZ) - a state-owned enterprise located in South Siberia - signed a contract in October 2022 with the Russian intermediary Techpribor to purchase Siemens equipment to serve the automation of the production line.
Before the delivery date, Techpribor received the shipment from supplier Huizhou Funn Tek, an industrial equipment trading company in Guangdong, China.
Customs data shows that the shipment includes two Siemens electrical adjustment sets, matching the BOZ order.
Siemens Germany insists it strictly complies with sanctions and requires customers to do the same, but admits that goods can still go to Russia without their knowledge.
Techpribor did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Huizhou Funn Tek said it could buy directly from Siemens and not being asked who the end user is. The company insists it does not deliver to military units, but data shows that it has many Russian customers.
In addition to Huizhou, Techpribor also imports many Siemens shipments from New Source Automation Company (Ha Mon, China). The company's manager confirmed that it could buy a large quantity of Siemens equipment and was not asked about end users.
Experts say that Russia's continued access to high-tech Western equipment through intermediation has fueled Moscow's rear-arming process. Konrad Muzyka - Director of military consulting firm Rochan (Poland) - commented: "These high-precision components are almost irreplaceable in the production of modern weapons, from missiles, UAVs to tanks".
The BOZ factory produces TNT and HMX explosives and is expanding to produce RDX explosives. These explosives can be used for civilian purposes, but BOZ is a unit under the Russian state defense corporation, which receives orders from the Russian Defense Ministry.
