The elevator industry is stuck in a rut

Russian elevator production is stagnating. Although the industry managed to recover after the crisis year of 2022, when production plummeted from 32,000 to 22,000 units, In 2023 and 2024, production rose to around 27,000 elevators. However, a downward trend set in again in 2025. For last year, the Russian statistics agency Rosstat reported 25,400 elevators manufactured.

Experts attribute this to the decline in demand in the Russian construction industry. In addition, fewer major renovations of the housing stock were carried out across Russia. According to the Russian Lift Association (RLO), the number of installed elevators fell by 10% to 40,000 in 2025. There is often a shortage of specialists to speed up elevator installation. Today, an elevator mechanic services 100 to 150 elevators per month; in the Soviet Union, such a specialist was responsible for an average of 50 to 60 elevators, says Pyotr Kharlamov, managing director of the National Elevator Association (NLS).

Urgent need for renewal

Yet there is a high need for elevator modernization. Russia aims to replace around 109,000 obsolete elevators by the end of the decade. That amounts to 20,000 units per year. According to industry representatives, however, the sector currently manages to install only 13,000 to 17,000 elevators per year. The government has thus set an ambitious goal. According to the Russian Ministry of Construction, there are 640,000 elevators in residential buildings across Russia. The targeted replacement rate accounts for 18% of this total.

According to the Russian Ministry of Construction, there are 70,000 elevators in Russia that have already exceeded the recommended service life of 25 years. Nevertheless, they are permitted to remain in operation until 2030. The recommended service life of elevators varies from country to country: in China, it is 15 years. In Germany, as in Russia, 25 years is the norm. According to the equipment safety report by the German TÜV Association, more than one in ten elevators in Germany has significant to dangerous defects. Last year, 723,270 elevators were inspected nationwide.

Rising Safety Risk

The number of fatal elevator accidents in Russia is alarming. Since 2018, 195 people have died in Russia due to defective elevators, and 338 have been injured. Last year, there were 17 fatal elevator accidents. According to the National Elevator Association (NLS), the greatest need for elevators exists in the regions of Samara, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Ulyanovsk, Murmansk, Astrakhan, and Tver, as well as in the republics of Chuvashia, Udmurtia, and Karachay-Cherkessia. Elevators in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod regions perform the best. According to the NLS, there is not a single elevator in those areas that is more than 25 years old.

The state would have to allocate 600 billion rubles—equivalent to 6.4 billion euros—for a complete replacement, calculates NLS Managing Director Pyotr Kharlamov. An alternative to this expensive undertaking would be to replace individual components, such as an elevator’s drive system and suspension cables. “On average, a complete elevator replacement costs 4 million rubles, approximately 42,800 euros: The elevator itself accounts for 2 million rubles (21,400 euros), and the same amount is required for the removal of an old elevator plus the installation of a new one. All of this usually takes a month,” explains Charlamov.

Next Floor: Import Substitution

According to data from the Russian market research firm BusinessStat, elevator imports to Russia fell by 3.5% in 2024, from 18,400 to 17,800 units. Following the crisis year of 2022, Belarus, China, and Turkey significantly increased their elevator exports to Russia. In 2024, Belarus was the largest supplier (53%), followed by China (35%) and Turkey (11%). 1% of imported elevator systems came from other countries.

The withdrawal of leading Western industry leaders such as Otis, Kone, and ThyssenKrupp from Russia left deep scars on the Russian elevator industry in 2022. That year, production plummeted by 30%. Russian manufacturers quickly pivoted, replacing missing components from Western suppliers with shipments from Turkey and China. Furthermore, components from the largest Western elevator manufacturers continued to reach Russia via parallel imports. This state-regulated process allows for the import of necessary and hard-to-replace goods and services without the rights holder’s permission. As of 2021, the share of foreign components used in Russian elevators reached 30%.

In the fall of 2023, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development announced that 80% of the components in standard elevators are now produced in Russia. However, market representatives acknowledge that manufacturers still rely on imports for complex elevator systems, such as those in skyscrapers. The Moscow-based elevator manufacturer Shcherbinka is currently Russia’s industry leader, with a market share of around 30%. Other major elevator manufacturers include Meteor Lift, with its main production facility in St. Petersburg, Moscow Electrical Equipment and Lifts, and the Serpukhov Elevator Plant in the Moscow region.

Key industry representatives

According to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, around 30% of the elevator systems imported into Russia in 2021 came from abroad. Of these, 13% were elevators from the U.S., Europe, and other Western countries. 15% came from neighboring Belarus.

The withdrawal from the market of the U.S. company OTIS Elevator Company, the world’s largest elevator manufacturer, was a loss for the Russian market. Otis held a 16% share of the Russian elevator market until 2022. In the summer of 2022, the group sold its Russian business to the Russian holding company S8 Capital, which subsequently renamed Otis’s subsidiary Meteor Lift. In 2023, other foreign market players—including elevator manufacturers Kone from Finland, ThyssenKrupp Elevator from Germany, and Schindler from Switzerland—exited the market. Unlike Otis, however, their market share in 2021 was small: Kone (3%), ThyssenKrupp Elevator (1.1%), Schindler (0.7%). 

This article first appeared in the exclusive newsletter of the German-Russian Chamber of Foreign Trade