Kemerovos Stroiservis to invest 800 mln rubles in coal mining in 2007

The Kemerovo-based Stroiservis plans to invest 796 million rubles this year in its coal enterprises in the region, which will be about the same as in 2006.

The money will be spent on new machinery and construction of two concentrating facilities with capacity for 1 million tonnes of coal each, Stroiservis general director Dmitry Nikolayev told reporters on Thursday after signing a socioeconomic cooperation agreement with the Kemerovo regional administration.

The concentrating facilities at the Shestaki and Barzasskoye strip mines, costing a combined 600 million rubles, are expected to come on stream in September. The facilities will reduce the ash content of the steam coal from these mines by half and boost the market price by $10
per tonne, Nikolayev said.

The company expects its Kemerovo region mines to increase coal production by 700,000 tonnes this year, to 3.6 million tonnes.

Stroiservis’ other two strip mines in the region are Permyakovsky and Berezovsky.

Nikolayev said the company’s metals trading business is expected to have sales of 2.5 billion rubles in 2007. The company opened branches in Krasnoyarsk and Yekaterinburg last year, and plans to open one more this year, he said.

Besides coal mines, the Stroiservis group also includes service and engineering businesses, but Stroiservis itself specializes in metals trade and acts as a management company.

Nikolayev also said that the agreement with the regional calls for the company to continue to participate in the implementation of national projects in the region, raise wages and carry out a number of other social obligations.

The company plans to invest about 20 million rubles in creating safe working conditions this year, which is 10 million rubles less than in 2006. Nikolayev said spending would decrease because a number of problems with industrial safety were resolved last year.

The Stroiservis group is controlled by Nikolayev and other executives.