Page 34 - BELRptOct18

9.2 Major corporate news 9.2.2 Automotive corporate news
The Belarusian state-owned heavy truck manufacturer BelAZ forecasts a 30% year-on-year increase (to 800 units) in truck output in 2018 , the company's director general Piotr Parkhomchik told reporters on September 25. In January-June, BelAZ produced 407 dump trucks, Parkhomchik said. In 2017, the company saw produced 615 dump trucks and sold 646, according to BELTA news agency. "The demand for dump trucks in 2017 rose, which pushed export and net profit upwards," the director underlined.
BelAZ, which is subordinated to the Belarusian Industry Ministry, doesn't publish its official production and financial results, so it is impossible to verify the numbers provided to the news agency.
BelAZ has plans to introduce flexible manufacturing systems into production. "It envisages virtually unmanned manufacturing using robotic devices, totally computer-aided production involving digital technologies," Parkhomchik said. "We announced a tender and seven international companies have already submitted their bid offers. The amount in question is $50mn-$70mn."
He also said that BelAZ is going to start cooperation with a Canadian company to design an electric dump truck, without providing the company's name.
"A serious document has been put together on designing an electric dump truck together with a Canadian company.," BELTA quoted him as saying. "We intend to get finance from the Canadian company as part of this startup. Our customer is the international mining company ArcelorMittal."
Parkhomchik added that accumulators represent the main problem in designing such a dump truck. The available solutions allow powering such dump trucks for three to four hours.
"We need at least eight hours with 20-30 minutes of downtime for recharging," he underlined. "Mainly electric excavators are used in Russian quarries. Our competitors already make dump trucks powered by batteries for underground mining."
9.2.4 Construction & Real estate corporate news
Russia's state-controlled gas company Gazprom will restarted the construction of a new $500mn office complex for its local subsidiary in Minsk in the fourth quarter of 2018, Yuri Kochergo, the first deputy head of the construction and investments committee at the Minsk city government told reporters on September 4, local media reported the same day. The construction will be re-launched after Minsk settled in 2017 its $726.2mn debt for gas previously supplied by Gazprom. The rift between the neighbouring former Soviet countries was caused by Minsk's demands to lower the price it would pay for Russian gas from $132 to $73 per 1,000 cubic metres and requested that Gazprom switch to equal netback pricing. Gazprom had planned to construct the 182-metre-high office building for Gazprom Transgaz Belarus as part of a multifunctional complex including sports and healthcare centres, and other public premises.
9.2.5 Retail corporate news
34 BELARUS Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com
Eurotorg , the largest food retailer in Belarus with around a 20% market share, increased net profit by 16.6% year-on-year to BYN68.7mn