German Companies are Prepared to Start Supplying Equipment to the Urals on Credit

31.03.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

Representatives of German companies Hermle, Handmann, Weisser, Hatebur - producers of machines and high-tech equipment for aircraft and automotive industries and machine building have visited Ekaterinburg. They met with Aleksandr Kharlov, the Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, to discuss the prospects for the establishment of a joint venture production plant to manufacture machine-tool equipment in the Urals, which would reduce the equipment cost. The customs costs reduction will make the equipment 30-40% cheaper.

The German companies are prepared to open dealership centres in the Urals; they have already begun to look for potential partners. At present there are such dealerships of German machine-tool builders working in Moscow and Novosibirsk. According to the information received by RusBusinessNews, during the seminar with the representatives of the largest plans of the Mid Urals, German businessmen declared that they are prepared provide partial investment for a number of projects in the machine building field. In order to speed up the process of equipment replacement, machine-tool builders are prepared to import their products to the Urals and accept instalment payments spread over 5-10 years with the 10% annual interest or lower. They have a track record working with Russian companies in this fashion.