Alexander Ignatyuk, analyst of Energocapital IC

– St.Petersburg companies producing equipment for NPPs receive quite big money and this financing is steadily growing

On June 2 Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin visited St.Petersburg and Izhorskiye Zavody. He familiarized himself with the course of the complex modernization and enlargement program implemented by OMZ since 2007 and worth almost 11bln RUR. The program envisages the production of four units a year. The first stage of the modernization program is the construction of steel-smelting complex DSP-120, one of the biggest steel-smelting complexes in Russia.

First of all, as representative of the North-Western Federal District, I would like to point out the high importance of such contracts for the machine building industry of the region. Today, when the crisis is forcing many St.Petersburg plants to stop or curtail their productions, Rosatom is enlarging its contracts in the city. The St.Petersburg companies producing equipment for nuclear power plants are receiving quite big money and this financing is steadily growing: the seven biggest machine building plants of the city have contracts worth a total of 94.4bln RUR: 1.3bln RUR in 2007 and 12.8bln RUR in 2008. This year the amount of the contracts will grow to all-time high 20.2bln RUR. During his last visit to Baltiysky Zavod Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said that the financing might be further enlarged as NPP construction projects might need more equipment. 

It is very good that the Government support the projects implemented in the nuclear industry. I would like to point out the importance of the visit of Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin to Izhorskiye Zavody, which is actively modernizing and enlarging its capacities so as to be able to meet Rosatom’s orders. Presently, Izhorskiye zavody are building a reactor shell cover for Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant with Atomenergoprom being the agent of this contract.

Now that many sectors are deteriorating, the NPP construction is actively developing. Only a few projects have been put off because of dropping energy demand. However, in the regions were the demand is high the NPP construction is well underway. I mean the two units of Rostov Nuclear Power Plant. Thus, Rosatom is becoming the biggest customer of the machine building industry helping the latter to preserve its production and human capacities under the crisis. In 2007–2009 the spending on the purchase of equipment for nuclear power plants has grown from 25.8bln RUR to 78.4bln RUR.

The number of companies supplying equipment to Rosatom is growing. Thus, Rosatom, together with the Government of Russia, is implementing a complex program to support the machine building industry. This program is aimed not at giving concessions to the machine builders but at stimulating their active reconstruction and development.