Russia and Iran Are Allies Against West, Rivals in Commodity Sales

TEHRAN—Iran and Russia are engaged in a fierce competition for sales of oil, refined crude products and metals in India, China and across Asia, as Moscow sells at prices that are undercutting one of its few supporters during the Ukraine invasion.

The struggle over market share between Iran and Russia provides a stark example of how the Ukraine war is rewiring global energy markets, knocking Moscow out of the West only to find it re-emerge elsewhere. India and China—two of the world’s biggest commodities consumers—have stayed largely neutral in the Ukraine war, refusing to join Western sanctions and bingeing on cheap Russian oil and metals at the expense of Iran, which they had previously relied on for discounted products.