Search Results for: Russia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIAN iron pellet maker Karelsky Okatysh is likely to receive a US$60 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to refinance short-term indebtedness and improve the standard of its machinery.

The money would pay for the “maintenance, modernisation and upgrade (increased efficiency)” of existing plant, said an EBRD note, which added that the debt relief would help the restructuring of Karelsky.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN timber company Ilim Pulp plans to build a US$50m timber processing plant in the northern Arkhangelsk region of the country, with a projected annual output of up to 700,000 cubic meters of processed timber annually. The company expects to prepare the construction project for the new plant and decide on an exact location by the end of the year.…

BY MARK ROWE
SIBNEFT, Russia’s sixth largest oil producer, has opened a subsidiary in St. Petersburg with the aim of seizing a significant share of the city’s retail-gasoline market. The move is also expected to enable Sibneft to use its refinery capacity to secure a larger stake in the local wholesale petroleum-products sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENHANCED powers, responsibilities and resources are being proposed for the new European Maritime Safety Agency to enable it to fight tanker pollution. The European Commission has proposed that it should buy or lease specialist anti-pollution vessels. It also wants its work expanded to cover maritime security and seafarer training.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SHARP public spat over the Kyoto Protocol has soured relations between the European Union’s (EU) environment Commissioner Margot Wallström and energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio. The social democrat Swede criticised her Spanish conservative colleague in an undiplomatic briefing to journalists in Brussels, following de Palacio’s comments that the EU might have to reconsider supporting Kyoto, given Russia’s reluctance to ratify it.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA has called on Thailand to cut import tariffs on non-ferrous and ferrous metals to help boost trade between the two countries. Alexei Kudrin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said that if tariffs were lowered, Russia would increase imports, particularly of non-ferrous metals, steel and iron, which constitute the lion’s share of Thai imports from Russia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BONDUELLE is combining Euro 15 million from the EBRD with its own money to build a Euro 41 million plant producing 60,000 tonnes of fresh packaged vegetables a year, in Krasnodar, southwest Russia.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIAN counterfeit goods manufacturers, who have traditionally regarded clothes and textile goods as prime and lucrative targets, have seen a six-fold fall in the number of goods they sell. The country’s State Customs Committee says Russia lost US$600 million last year in the sale of fake goods of all kinds, compared with US$1 billion in 1999.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE has been a lot of talk about water in international meetings and organisations this year. Report after report has spelt out that we are all using too much water and if reforms do not make systems more sustainable, then a thirsty future beckons.…