Putin to tour Udmurtia`s two major industrial enterprises.

MOSCOW, September 7 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Head of Government Vladimir
Putin is to make a working trip to Izhevsk on Tuesday to familiarize
himself with the operation of two major industrial enterprises of the
Republic of Udmurtia.
The Prime Minister will visit the Izhevsk metallurgical mill
(Izhstal), the output of which is used by defence, automobile, aviation,
petroleum and mining industries, and tool making plants. The mill's output
is exported to North America, Europe, Central Asia, and the (post-Soviet)
Baltic States.
In the first half of 2010, the sale of the mill's products amounted to
5,100 million roubles, which was 43 percent more than in the corresponding
period of 2009. On the whole, the sale of output ran at over 53,000
million roubles in the period from 2005 to the first half of 2010.
The mill currently implements a technical re-equipment programme. As a
result, annual payments to budgets of all levels and to extrabudgetary
funds will grow by 1,500 million roubles; 500 jobs will be created for the
construction period and 270 ones for operation; the level of ecological
security of the enterprise will be raised, and discharges into the
atmosphere will be reduced by more than 83.3 percent.
Putin will take part in one of stages of the modernization of
production -- the start-up of an electrical steel smelting complex,
consisting of an electric arc steel smelting furnace made by the fir,
Tenova (Italy) and machines for the continuous casting of blanks, made by
the firm STS (Italy).
Due to the new equipment, Izhstal will reach out to the world market
with steel output, which is basically novel to the Russian
producer--low-carbon rustless, high-quality tool and fast cutting grades
of steel, hot-rolled and cold-treated stock with geometric parameters of
high precision and surface finish.
Putin will also tour the assembly line of the Izhevsk automobile plant
(Izhauto) -- one of major enterprises of the city with a rated capacity of
220,000 cars a year. Established in 1966, Izhauto had been assembling KIA
Spectra cars under license. However, owing to the world downturn and the
general reduction in demand for automobiles, Izhauto had to discontinue
the assembly of cars in May 2009.
With a view to reorganizing the enterprise, the management of Izhauto
launched a procedure of bankruptcy. External management was introduced at
the plant.
The manufacture of cars was resumed in August 2010 in accordance with
a business plan worked out by the external management commissioner in
conjunction with the main creditor of the enterprise -- the Sberbank
(savings-bank) of Russia. According to the Memorandum of Understanding
between the Government of Udmurtia and the Hyundai Company, the enterprise
is to resume the manufacture of KIA Spectra cars in October-November 2010
and that of KIA Sorento cars in the middle of 2011.