Crisis to not affect construction of Rockwool plant in Alabuga

Rockwool International has confirmed its intention to construct a plant in the Tatarstan’s special economic zone Alabuga, said the company’s CEO Elco van Heel at a meeting with the Tatarstan prime minister Roustam Minnikhanov.

The first stone laying ceremony took place on 4 June 2008. The construction is to be completed and the first products – rockwool thermal insulation material – are to be manufactured by the time the market recovers. The Rockwool plant is projected to have the highest-productivity lines in Alabuga.

The Rockwool president said at the meeting today the company intended to continue the project despite the ongoing global economic crisis and to set a date of putting the plant into operation, to coincide with the time the market recovers. He added that the prospects for the Russian economy were positive, so when the market recovers, Rockwool wants to have a plant operating to capacity.

Mr van Heel praised the Tatarstan government’s focus on developing business and expressed gratitude for the assistance the Cabinet of Ministers rendered to Rockwool.

The Rockwool Russia General Director Nick Vince noted that the work on the project’s design was nearly completed, as well as the work on obtaining licences, including the environmental ones.

Mr Vince went on to say that the decrease in prices of construction materials offers an advantage for constructing the Rockwool plant at this time.

According to the aide for the Tatarstan prime minister on external economic affairs Iskander Muflikhanov, the Rockwool officials displayed an interest in supplying the manufactured products for the Universiade 2013 facilities, reports the Cabinet of Ministers’s press service.