Technological Breakdowns Threaten the Sverdlovsk Oblast

01.10.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

The Sverdlovsk Oblast is on the verge of technological breakdowns. About 70% of the process equipment used by the enterprises of the region has reached the end of its lifetime.

Industrial enterprises cut spendings on new equipment and at times use uncertified metallurgic and crane equipment. On the whole, for the past 20 years the number of machine tools at the Russian enterprises has been reduced by 40% - down to 1.5 million. The overwhelming majority of machine tools in use was manufactured yet in the Soviet Union.

The Urals Department for Technical Inspection (Rostechnadzor) told RusBusinessNews that in order to prevent technological breakdowns it is necessary to amend the legislation by making the owners of the enterprises responsible for investments into the equipment upgrade.

To ensure production growth in Russia by 2015 enterprises need around 200,000 new machine tools. Experts estimate that the stock of machine tools requires annual investments of about 14 billion rubles for quality upgrade. In 2008 the minimal equipment needs of the industry were covered only by 30% mainly by import which included second-hand machine tools.