Bricks
We manufacture a wide variety of high quality ceramic bricks of different size, grades and hues.
Our brick production plant is located in the village of Sverdlov in the Leningrad region, 18 km from St Petersburg, and employs approximately 200 people.
In 2010, we supplied 100% of the 7 million bricks required by our Group companies, which represented 20% of the plant’s annual production capacity of 35 million metric bricks. Overall, we produced approximately 20 million metric bricks in 2010, with the remaining approximately 13 million bricks being sold to third parties.
Ceramic bricks are manufactured by plastic molding and fired in tunnel kilns at 920°-930°C. Each batch of bricks is strictly tested in accordance with the applicable requirements at the plant’s laboratory, in order to ensure that products are manufactured to a very high standard. In addition, the quality control process includes mandatory testing at independent third party facilities.
Bricks manufactured by the plant are highly rated in St Petersburg and the region, and are used mainly for the construction of high-rise residential buildings. The facility is currently implementing technical upgrades to allow further growth of production.
Concrete and Reinforced Concrete Structures
We also manufacture ready-mix concrete, reinforced concrete structures and aerated concrete.
Ready-mix concreteReady-mix concrete is a versatile, low-cost manufactured material that the construction industry uses in substantially all of its projects. It is a stone-like compound that results from combining fine and coarse aggregates, such as sand, gravel and crushed stone, with water, various admixtures and cement. Ready-mix concrete can be manufactured in thousands of variations which in each instance may reflect a specific design use. Ready-mix concrete begins to harden when mixed and generally becomes difficult to place after 90 minutes from mixing. This characteristic limits the market for a permanently installed ready-mix plant to an area within a 25-mile radius of its location. In 2010, we supplied 100% of the ready-mix concrete requirements of our group companies. As of 31 December 2010, our annual production capacity of ready-mix concrete was approximately 204 thousand cubic metres.
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Reinforced concrete structures and aerated concreteWe produce a variety of reinforced concrete structures, including reinforced concrete lift shafts, flights of stairs, lintels, ventilation blocks and fencing panels. We also produce aerated concrete blocks, which are a lightweight artificial building material produced by solidifying a porous mix and are used in residential and commercial construction for wall and load-carrying structures and as insulation material. The primary ingredients in the production of the aerated concrete that we offer are refined quartz sand, cement, lime, gypsum and aluminium powder, all of which are purchased from third parties. Aerated concrete is produced by applying heat to ingredient materials in autoclaves. Aerated concrete products (both small wall blocks and reinforced items) can be used for load-carrying as well as non-load carrying structures of exterior and interior walls, with aerated concrete serving both as a structural and insulating material. Aerated concrete is environmentally friendly, easy to produce and competitively priced in comparison to other construction materials. In light of these properties, aerated concrete is proving increasingly popular as a construction material used in high-rise residential construction as well as for commercial and industrial projects. In 2010, we supplied 100% of the reinforced concrete structures and aerated concrete requirements of our Group companies. As of 31 December 2010, our annual production capacity of reinforced concrete and aerated concrete was approximately 42 thousand cubic metres. |
