Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has not forgotten about Pikalyovo. In his phone-in broadcast yesterday he promised that the industries in Pikalyovo would sign long-term contracts for the supply of raw materials very soon. Three hours later the Bazeltsement press service announced that a contract had been signed: Apatit (part of Fosagro) will supply Bazeltsement with nepheline concentrate at 620 roubles per ton. The annual contract comes into force on December 6, Bazeltsement spokeswoman Svetlana Andreyeva said.
As late as November, Fosagro was asking price 1025 roubles per ton, arguing that the production cost is 1676 roubles per ton.
The new price is 27% lower than that charged since September (850 roubles per ton) and 17.5% lower than the price at which Apatit shipped raw materials to Bazetlsement immediately after Vladimir Putin's scandalous trip to Pikalyovo (750 roubles per ton). In June, the Prime Minister chaired a meeting in that city and reprimanded the managers of Bazeltsement, Pikalyovsky Tsement (Yevrokhim) and Pikalyovskaya Soda (former Metakhim, currently part of Sevzapprom) and the bureaucrats concerned. Operations were quickly restored.
Bazeltsement yesterday also signed a contract with Pikalyovsky Tsement for the supply of belite slime at 400 roubles per ton (the previous price was 520 roubles per ton). Pikalyovskaya Soda for its part will buy carbonate solution at 900 roubles per cubic metre (against 1050 roubles per cubic metre previously). The contract prices were set on the basis of FAS recommendations, the Trade and Industry Ministry press service announced. The spokesman for Fosagro refused to say why the company had agreed to that price. But director-general of the managing company Sevzapprom, Alexander Utevsky, believes that such prices must suit all the participants in the operation and they enable Pikalyovskaya Soda to have a "slim profit margin." Svetlana Andreyeva agrees. And Yelena Rudovskaya, a representative of Yevrotsement Group, only described the price cut as "substantial."
Alexander Tyomkin; Nadezhda Terentyeva