Trends of electrical engineering

The conference programme of Elektro 2026 opened with the 3rd Business Forum on Electrical Engineering. New Energy of Development.

The first event, the electrical engineering in a storm: where to find growth points, keep government contracts, and exports in the context of localization and technological blockade, was moderated by Viktor Svintsov, Executive Director at the Russian Association of Electrical Companies (RAEC).

Sergey Selivanov, Deputy Director General at EXPOCENTRE AO, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. He emphasized the scale and importance. This year, the 34th edition of Elektro covers an area of 15,000 square meters and hosts 350 companies from Russia, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, and Turkiye. The speaker also focused on the change of the show’s location. “Our team made all necessary efforts so that the exhibitors would not feel the negative effect of the change of venue, and it would be as comfortable and efficient as possible for both the exhibitors and visitors,” said Mr. Selivanov.

Discussions at the forum revealed that the volume of the Russian electrical engineering market for the middle of 2026 is estimated at almost 2 trillion rubles. Its key segments are power electronics, microelectronics, charging infrastructure, industrial automation, digital substations, cable-carrying systems, and others. Speaking about the trends of 2022-2026, it was emphasized that the electrical engineering market shows high volatility. The recession of 2022 was replaced by growth in 2023-2024 as a replacement for the brands that had left. In 2025-2026, there will be a slowdown due to the high key interest rate, the actual unavailability of industrial mortgages and cheap loans, the exhaustion of pent-up demand, and other factors.

Vladimir Gamza, Chair at the Financial Market and Investment Council, member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President at the F&I Consulting Consortium, and member of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, drew attention to serious macroeconomic challenges. “By the end of 2025, we are ranked fourth in the world in terms of key financial indicators. But we must understand that over the past 35 years, our average growth has been lower than the global average. If we develop at a rate of less than 2% of GDP per year, then by 2030 we will be in 7th or 8th place. The only option for us to stay in 4th place is to develop at a pace higher than the global average, that is, at least 3%,” said Mr. Gamza.

Maksim Kuznetsov, Chair at the Russian-Asian Business Council, Director General at Russian-Asian Trade and Industrial Company, highlighted the complexities of logistics and the specifics of working with Asian markets. He pointed to the acute trade imbalance with China in electrical equipment: imports exceed exports in price terms by more than two orders of magnitude. The expert also identified four main channels for the re-export of Western equipment–Turkiye, the UAE, Central Asia, and Hong Kong–warning market participants about the continued rise in the cost of advanced technological solutions.

The session participants also included Aleksandr Afanasiev, Senior Researcher of the Centre for Innovative Economics of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Slavyana Rumyantseva, Chief Editor at the Energy and Industry of Russia newspaper.

The three days of the forum will offer fresh analytics and forward-looking assessments of the development of the electrical engineering market in Russia and the EAEU, which will help the event participants to make practical decisions. The participants will also learn about the latest trends in Russian electrical engineering developments that need to be put into practice as early as 2027. They will discuss innovative HR solutions that will provide the industry’s companies with mid-level personnel, and will help customers take care of maintenance and servicing of electrical equipment themselves.

In addition, there will be special panels where participants will analyze algorithms for solving urgent problems affecting the successful development of the industry.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO